40th Birthday Thanks + RIP Clive Davis

And someone who I think really exemplified that far longer and far better than I have or probably ever will, uh, is Clive Davis.

And of course, Clive Davis died this week at age 94.

It's a huge, huge incalculable loss to the industry.

He's been an absolutely totemic figure in pop music for far, far longer than I've been alive, and he's been responsible for helping bring pop figures into the world, people that we know just by one name, people like Aretha, Whitney, Barry, Alicia, Janice, Sly.

I didn't realize he'd done Sly.

Countless more.

You can read all about it at billboard.com. We've done some really fantastic work kind of anthologizing everything that Clive Davis has been and has meant to the industry.

And he's just been a huge presence here at Billboard in general.

You know, I, I never got to talk to him personally, which, which I'm, you know, kind of regretful about at this point, but certainly a ton of my coworkers have, and they almost all to a, to a one have a Clive Davis story of some sort.

And he's just really somebody who never lost the love or the passion for pop music and for continuing to kind of push it forward and, you know, talk about staying impactful as you age.

He signed Alicia Keys around the turn of the century.

He was already, what, like 67, 68 years old at that point.

You know, that's already easily into retirement age, and he is still, you know, making these discoveries that changed the course of pop music, introducing these sort of era-defining stars.

It's a pretty incredible legacy to have.

Of course, he stayed active all through the years, basically right up till the very end.

He was still very involved at Sony.

He had his Pre-Grammy Gala.

That was an annual event every year, always like one of the major events on the music business calendar.

Did a lot of charity work.

Uh, just a few years ago, he co-produced the Whitney biopic, "I Wanna Dance With Somebody." And you know, speaking of that song, we did something on Dance as the number one pop song of all time when we were doing our top 500 pop songs list, uh, back in 2023, I think the year after the movie came out.

And we were doing a separate story just about the song, and we called him to get some quotes.

Kyle, my coworker, who's been on this podcast a million times, he did the story for us.

And Clive didn't need to talk to him for that story.

You know, he's got nothing to prove at this point.

The song certainly has nothing to prove at this point.

And someone who I think really exemplified that far longer and far better than I have or probably ever will, uh, is Clive Davis.

And of course, Clive Davis died this week at age 94.

It's a huge, huge incalculable loss to the industry.

He's been an absolutely totemic figure in pop music for far, far longer than I've been alive, and he's been responsible for helping bring pop figures into the world, people that we know just by one name, people like Aretha, Whitney, Barry, Alicia, Janice, Sly.

I didn't realize he'd done Sly.

Countless more.

You can read all about it at billboard.com. We've done some really fantastic work kind of anthologizing everything that Clive Davis has been and has meant to the industry.

And he's just been a huge presence here at Billboard in general.

You know, I, I never got to talk to him personally, which, which I'm, you know, kind of regretful about at this point, but certainly a ton of my coworkers have, and they almost all to a, to a one have a Clive Davis story of some sort.

And he's just really somebody who never lost the love or the passion for pop music and for continuing to kind of push it forward and, you know, talk about staying impactful as you age.

He signed Alicia Keys around the turn of the century.

He was already, what, like 67, 68 years old at that point.

You know, that's already easily into retirement age, and he is still, you know, making these discoveries that changed the course of pop music, introducing these sort of era-defining stars.

It's a pretty incredible legacy to have.

Of course, he stayed active all through the years, basically right up till the very end.

He was still very involved at Sony.

He had his Pre-Grammy Gala.

That was an annual event every year, always like one of the major events on the music business calendar.

Did a lot of charity work.

Uh, just a few years ago, he co-produced the Whitney biopic, "I Wanna Dance With Somebody." And you know, speaking of that song, we did something on Dance as the number one pop song of all time when we were doing our top 500 pop songs list, uh, back in 2023, I think the year after the movie came out.

And we were doing a separate story just about the song, and we called him to get some quotes.

Kyle, my coworker, who's been on this podcast a million times, he did the story for us.

And Clive didn't need to talk to him for that story.

You know, he's got nothing to prove at this point.

The song certainly has nothing to prove at this point.