Clive Davis

Year:
2000
Inducted by:
Patti Smith
Category:
Ahmet Ertegun Award

Introduction

Every act he touched turned platinum.

Producer and music executive Clive Davis had an uncanny eye for talent; he signed Whitney Houston, Patti Smith, P. Diddy and more.

Patti Smith Inducts Clive Davis

Patti Smith Inducts Clive Davis at the 2000 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony

Patti Smith Inducts Clive Davis

00:02:15
Clive Davis Acceptance Speech

00:06:21
"People Have the Power"

00:04:58

Hall of Fame Essay

2000

Fred Goodman

“I’m not the oldest of the young guys,” director Francis Ford Coppola once remarked of his place in modern Hollywood. “I’m the youngest of the old guys.”

That surprising -and surprisingly apt-assessment can be applied with even greater illumination to the extraordinarily wide-ranging career and contributions of record executive Clive Davis.

The presence of Bob Dylan and the Byrds on its roster notwithstanding, Columbia Records was hardly a rock powerhouse in 1967 when its new president, Clive Davis, ventured west to the Monterey Pop Festival.