Shiftheads - Clive Davis Shaped Every Era of Music for 66 Years

Music industry commentator Eric Alper on the death of Clive Davis at 94 — the man whose roster reads like the history of recorded music and whose ear for a hit never stopped working, no matter the decade. Davis didn't just sign artists. He picked the songs, the co-writers, the photographers, the look. He spotted Whitney Houston in a New York club before anyone knew her name and spent years shaping her before the public heard a note. He gave Bruce Springsteen a third album when almost no one else would. He signed Janis Joplin and Santana at Monterey. He came back from a 1973 scandal that most people assumed would finish him and built Arista Records into something bigger than what came before. Eric Alper makes the case that there is no list of greatest music executives — there is just Clive Davis, and then everyone else. Topics: Clive Davis, music industry history, Whitney Houston, Bruce Springsteen, Arista Records GUEST: Eric Alper | thatericalper.com Originally aired on 2026-06-22