Clive Davis: The Soundtrack of Our Lives

Record label boss and talent scout Clive Davis has been active in the music industry for 50 years. He studied law at Harvard and was working for the legal department at Columbia Records when he was asked to take over the rock department (CBS Records). "I knew nothing about music," he says of his early days in this documentary, which covers half a century in the music business. In 1967, he attended the Monterey Pop Festival, where he heard Janis Joplin. He signed her on the spot, along with guitarist Santana and later Bruce Springsteen. Several more successes followed, until he was fired in 1973. This prompted him to set up the Arista Records label, which signed acts including Barry Manilow, Lou Reed and a 19-year-old Whitney Houston. The film, which features archive footage, interviews and performances, examines Davis’s relationship with Houston, for whom he acted as a father figure. Nevertheless, the day after her death, he decided to go ahead with his annual pre-Grammy Awards party: "The show must go on."