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♪ Freedom's just another word
For nothing left to lose ♪

♪ Nothin'
That's all that Bobby left me ♪

♪ Yeah ♪

♪ And feelin' good
Was easy, Lord ♪

♪ Bobby sang the blues ♪

♪ Feelin' good
Was good enough for me ♪

♪ Good enough for me
And Bobby McGee ♪

♪ And it's just like the ocean
Under the moon ♪

♪ It's the same as the emotion
That I get from you ♪

♪ You got the kind of lovin'
That can be so smooth yeah ♪

♪ Give me your heart
Make it real or else forget about it ♪

♪ Let's not forget about it ♪

♪ Looks like we made it ♪

♪ We left each other
On the way ♪

♪ To another love ♪

♪ Looks like we made it ♪

♪ Or I thought so till today ♪

♪ People have the power
To dream ♪

♪ People have the power
To love ♪

♪ The power to dream ♪

♪ To rule ♪

♪ To wrestle the world
From fools ♪

♪ I will feel ♪

♪ I will feel ♪

♪ I will be free ♪

♪ I will be ♪

♪ I will be free ♪

No. I'm-- I'm not like him.
He is much...

He's much better with artists
than I am, I've gotta tell you. Um...

And his incredible
attention to detail,

second to none.

But look, deep down,
we all wanted to be Clive Davis,

you know, and have that track record,

that ability to turn an artist
into a superstar.

You know, that's quite unique.

I've been his competitor,
I've been his friend.

And, it's all about one thing:

Is the song good enough?
Is the vocal good enough?

Is it exciting enough?

And that's what he does.
That's how he gets off.

Most-- You know,
most people, as executives,

get a chance to make it

for maybe a soundtrack
for a period of time.

Like, you talking about
the '60s, '70s,

'80s, '90s... 2000s.

He's made the soundtrack
you know, for our lives.

We're less than 24 hours away

from music's biggest night.

But tonight, the who's who
of the music world

all at the most prestigious
Grammy party,

hosted by legendary
music producer, Clive Davis.

He's one of the few surviving
music moguls from the 1960s.

It's a story that spans four decades

and countless chart-topping hits.

Clive has been around for a while.

You know that he discovered
Earth Wind & Fire?

Not the band, the elements.

As always, we're still doing this.

There's a certain dopamine release

that comes from having a hit record.

And, you know, Clive's a hit addict.

Here he is:
the man with the golden ears.

The one, the only,
Mr. Clive Davis!

Clive's Grammy parties...
kinda more than just a party.

You know, it's, it's--
it's kind of a historical event.

- ♪ You better think ♪
- ♪ Think ♪

♪ Think about what you're trying
To do to me ♪

- ♪ Think ♪
- ♪ Think, think ♪

♪ Let your mind go
Let yourself be free ♪

- ♪ Oh, freedom ♪
- ♪ Freedom ♪

The Grammy party,
that's bigger than the Grammys.

You know, trying to get a ticket
to that is not easy.

For Maroon 5, a chance of a lifetime,

to be launched by one of
music's top star-makers.

♪ This love has taken its toll ♪

♪ On me, she said goodbye ♪

♪ Too many times before ♪

That party is a rite of passage.

You haven't made it in this business

until you're invited to that party.

♪ What you gonna say? ♪

♪ Pass the Courvoisier ♪

- ♪ We gonna tell that brother ♪
- ♪ Pass the Courvoisier ♪

Everyone from all walks of life
in the same room.

But, of course, music brings
everyone together.

♪ It ain't me ♪

♪ It ain't me ♪

♪ I ain't no millionaire's son ♪

♪ It ain't me ♪

♪ It ain't me ♪

♪ I ain't no fortunate one ♪

I'm looking in this audience
right now,

I have to bow
in the presence of greatness.

♪ This will be oh!
You and me yeah! ♪

♪ Yes, siree, eternally ♪

♪ Huggin' and squeezin'
and kissin' and pleasin' ♪

♪ Together forever
Through rain or whatever ♪

♪ Yeah, yeah, yeah ♪

There is nobody who can get
the whole industry together,

but Clive Davis.

This night never ceases to be special.

And it is gonna be
real special tonight.

If you're willing to...

take a musical journey with me.

♪ It's Make Believe
Ballroom time ♪

♪ Put all your cares away ♪

I grew up with the radio.

A lot of listening
to the Make Believe Ballroom.

So I did know the songs of the day,

but never thought of it as a profession.

The emphasis in Jewish families
that did not have any money

was that you gotta be a lawyer,
or you gotta be a doctor.

I was gonna be a lawyer, with no clue

what being a lawyer meant,
what it entailed.

You were gonna be a lawyer.

I applied for and got
a scholarship to NYU.

But my mother died

as my second year of college

was beginning.

My world was thrown topsy-turvy.

The closest person in my life
was my mother.

And my father died
within that following year.

The word orphan, you know, that...

some other people applied to me,

I couldn't believe that that word...

was, um, being applied to myself.

I think the death of Clive's parents

when he was young

is one reason why Clive works so hard.

You know, if anything goes,
it's not gonna be because

he didn't make the strongest effort

to make sure that it stayed.

Oh right.

Uh, 1950.

He was very smart in school.

Smarter than I was.

And, he parlayed that into

a wonderful job right after school.

I was working at one
of the top law firms in the city.

Until one day, I get a call
from one of my clients,

I get a call from one of my clients,

the chief attorney
for Columbia Records.

And he said,

"We have a two-man legal department.

I'm not happy with my number two man.

Within six months to a year,
the number two man

will be the chief lawyer
for Columbia Records.

That's what I offer you."

I knew nothing about music.

I knew nothing about what awaited me.

But I did seize that opportunity.

Five years later,

Goddard Lieberson, the president
of Columbia Records,

calls me into his office, and he said,

"I would like you to leave the law,

and become head

of the Musical Instruments Division.

All the people at Fender Guitars,

at Leslie Speakers,

at Steinway Piano,

they'll report to you."

I went home that night,
gave great thought to it,

and I said, "You know,
I'm gonna turn it down."

The next morning,
there's a call from Goddard,

and he said, "Clive,
there's been a change of plans."

He said, "Norman Adler really
wants to move to La Jolla,

I'm gonna make him

Head of The Musical Instruments
Division.

And you'll be the new head
of Columbia Records."

That's how I got
in the record business.

♪ Moon River ♪

♪ Wider than a mile ♪

At that time, Columbia was preeminent

in classical music.

They were preeminent
in Broadway shows.

And in middle-of-the-road music,

with Andy Williams,
and Barbra Streisand,

Vikki Carr, Tony Bennett.

They were not interested
in rock 'n' roll.

Please, don't just sit there.
Come on and sing.

♪ Five foot two, eyes of blue ♪

In fact, Mitch Miller,

the famed Mitch Miller,

who had his own TV show

and was the A&R man

par excellence at Columbia Records.

He believed that rock

was a passing phenomenon,

and that it was ephemeral,
and would disappear.

Mitch Miller was
a real powerhouse at Columbia,

and very famously,
couldn't stand rock 'n' roll.

And, as often happens,

that kind of permeated
the entire company.

There's two kinds of music:
good and bad.

And the rest is all bullshit.

♪ Has anybody seen my gal? ♪

And it was
at this point that Lou Adler

asked me to go to
the Monterey Pop Festival,

when my life would be changed forever.

♪ If you're going ♪

♪ To San Francisco ♪

♪ Be sure to wear ♪

♪ Some flowers in your hair ♪

I was blown away.

I had never seen
any hint of the cultural,

social revolution
coming out of Haight-Ashbury.

And I was there, with white
pants and a tennis sweater.

So I was the one that looked weird.

The second artist that I saw

that first afternoon

was Big Brother &
the Holding Company.

No mention as to who
the lead singer would be.

♪ Hon, tell me why ♪

♪ Why does everything go wrong? ♪

♪ Baby ♪

As soon as Janis Joplin came on stage,

I mean, she was hypnotic.

♪ Well, here you gone today ♪

♪ And I want to love you ♪

♪ I want to love you
For so long ♪

Now these years later,
it sounds almost cliche,

but I felt my spine tingle
and my arms vibrate.

♪ Hon, oh, this can't be ♪

♪ Oh, b-b-b-b-baby ♪

♪ A love in vain ♪

I was just overcome with emotion.

And I was saying, you know,

this isn't just a social revolution.

This is a musical revolution.

♪ Oh, tell me why ♪

♪ Oh, people, tell me why love ♪

♪ Honey, why love is like ♪

♪ Well, it's like
A ball and... ♪

♪ And a chain ♪

This was the night
I signed Janis Joplin.

She was the first artist
I ever signed.

I did dig it
the first time I heard it.

I also liked it the other way.

He took those meetings right away.

And he had to prove to them,
beyond the way that he looked

and beyond the history
of those record companies,

that CBS Columbia was a place

where they could feel comfortable.

Last night, James passed out
in the Chelsea lobby.

You've been drinking
a little too much, James.

It was very corporate for her.

And she said, "You know, this is
the biggest moment in my life.

You're signing,
I'm signing with my group.

Let's go to bed together."

♪ Summertime, time, time ♪

I said, "It's a compliment,

but, we're not gonna mix

business with pleasure."

He seemed a little naive,

as far as artist relations.

But, he portrayed an honest person.

And that particular time period,

everyone was looking for the truth.

♪ Take another little piece
Of my heart now, baby ♪

♪ Take it ♪

♪ Take another little piece
Of my heart now, baby ♪

The world that
Columbia Records represented

in the mid-'60s was over.

♪ You know you got it, child
If it makes you feel good ♪

Clive was not the kind of guy

who would sit there and bemoan that

and try to beat that dead horse.

I mean, he was somebody that was like,
what is the future gonna be?

And it was very clear,
at that point, to him,

that the future was
gonna be rock 'n' roll.

And so, you know, he set out

on a mission to really make that happen.

One, two, three, four!
One, two, three, four!

Dazzled by what
I had seen at Monterey,

in a matter of 12 to 24 months,

I signed The Electric Flag.

♪ Someone is waiting ♪

I signed Blood, Sweat & Tears.

♪ Spinnin' wheel
Spinnin' true ♪

And Chicago.

♪ Twenty-five or six to four ♪

♪ Oh, yeah! ♪

It was titillating, yes.

Nerve-racking, yes.

My God, I'm actually signing artists.

I never thought I would do it.

I never thought that was my destiny.

I remember getting this call,
saying Bill Graham

wants you to come to The Fillmore
in San Francisco.

He's got a group
that he thinks is fabulous.

Everybody was coming to coo us.

Atlantic and, of course,
Columbia and Elektra.

All kinds of record companies.

Bill Graham,
held a couple of auditions,

one with Clive Davis
and one with Ahmet Ertegun.

I wanted to be with Clive in CBS

because I saw a poster for Christmas,

and it had Paul Simon,
Miles Davis, Bob Dylan, Electric Flag.

It had everybody in it.

But, the whole band
wanted to go with Atlantic.

So, I literally played horrible
for Ahmet Ertegun.

And the band was so pissed off at me.

"Hey, what are you doing?"

However, when Clive was there,

I remember just playing my heart out.

I just--
I just felt that, you know--

I felt that there was something
of a chemistry with him.

I had been told that one or two
of my major competitors

had seen them and didn't sign them.

But I said, you just gotta trust this...

instinct that you have,
this feeling that you have.

You've got to stand or fall

on whether you end up
having ears or not.

It was only
the building of a track record

that it became evident

that I might have a natural gift
that I never knew I had.

♪ Got a black magic woman ♪

In the late '60s, it was Clive

who brought Columbia
fully into the rock world.

And on more than one occasion,

we found ourselves

in competition for a great new act.

And both Clive and I were
after a group called Moby Grape.

And they said, "Look,
we're gonna sign with you,

but we promised Clive
one last meeting."

I said, "Don't sign anything,
and call me."

And at ten o'clock at night
I get a phone call.

"We got great news for you.
We signed with Clive."

I said, "What do you mean,
you signed with Clive?

You promised me--" "No", he said,

"Man, you're gonna be very happy."

I said, "Why?"

They said, "Well you know how
you really dig our music?

Well Clive has agreed
that you can come in and listen

in the studio, while we make..."

"while we make the album."

And I said, "Oh, shit!"

He has a certain kind
of child-like enthusiasm.

If you're representing talent,
or are talent itself,

that's the kind of person
you want to deal with.

You don't want to deal with
somebody who sees everything

in terms of dollars and cents.

I'm not saying he didn't understand

the economics of the music business,

because he did better
than anybody I know,

but he also brought
that other element,

which is artistic rapprochement
with the talent.

Clive came in right in
and had a special relationship,

I think, with Simon and Garfunkel.

Personally, I felt friendship.

I thought he was a smart guy.

I didn't know what
his musical abilities were

because he was coming out of law.

But the big surprise of Clive Davis

is that he became you know,

a musical...

a musical force in the record business.

I got a call one day, they were ready

with their next album.

They were debating
what'll be the single.

What'll be the single?

I said, it's probably "Cecilia."

and Clive said, "No, it has
to be 'Bridge over Troubled Water.'"

"But Clive, you sure?

We don't hear anything
that soft on the radio.

♪ When you're weary ♪

♪ When you're weary ♪

"You can't get away with that."

Clive said, "Watch,
we're gonna get away with it."

♪ When tears are in... ♪

This is a great moment
in my life 'cause it's about boldness.

He knows when music is good,
but better than good.

Everyone thinks
they can pick a hit song.

Everyone thinks
they know a great artist.

There are just a few people
who really understand it.

And Clive is the epitome of that person.

I'd been up to Columbia
and I had played for John Hammond,

and John said, "Gee, I love you,
but you gotta play for Clive."

And I went in, and I sat down,
and played the songs.

And this was, like, one of
the biggest days of my life.

We went in, we did the record
and sent it over to him.

And he sent it back. It's like...

He sent it back and he says,
"There's no singles.

There's no singles on the record."

And I said, "Well, you know,
that's probably true, you know."

And I went down to the beach
and I wrote, "Blinded by the Light."

And "Spirit In The Night."

So that was a good call.

"And she was blinded by the light,

"cut loose like a goose."

What a great phrase that is.

There was a film of Clive,

reciting the lyrics
to "Blinded by the Light,"

which was sent out
to all the branch offices.

"And some fresh-sown moonstone

"was messin' with his frozen zone...

"to remind him
of the feeling of romance."

This goes on for about
four or five minutes.

And it impressed me as a tremendous
personal commitment to my own career,

but also helped explain why there were

both words and music on the record.

♪ And she was blinded
By the light ♪

♪ Oh, cut loose like a goose ♪

♪ Another runner in the night ♪

♪ Blinded by the light ♪

"Mama always told me

"not to look
into the sights of the sun.

"Oh, but mama,
that's where the fun is."

Bruce... Springsteen.

♪ Nineteen seventy-one ♪

♪ We all heard
The starter's gun ♪

♪ New York is such a pity... ♪

Clive Davis took me aside,
put his arm around me,

and said, "You're gonna be a big star.

"And we're gonna sign you up,

"and you're gonna have lots of money.

"And your career
is gonna explode."

♪ And then
Old Clive Davis said ♪

♪ Surely gonna make us a star ♪

Think about this.

From an artist's perspective,
I never felt ignored.

Do you know how many artists
he had to work with? How many...

How much he had to do,
in a day's work?

No one felt left out.

I remember the great Miles Davis
coming to see me.

And saying to me,

"Why are you signing
these fucking..."

He used the word "fucking,"

"young white guys...

"who are stealing my chops,

and they're selling millions of albums."

And he really was angry.

Wanted off the label.

I said, "Miles, to move into

this new world
of contemporary pop music,

you're gonna have to let me book you

at the Fillmore Easts
and Wests of the world.

You're gonna have to play colleges,

you're gonna have to play
to this young rock audience.

And I know in my heart

you're gonna learn
from the experience.

You're gonna adapt
whatever your genius creates.

You're gonna be affected
by this."

And it did affect him.

So that his follow up album
was Bitches Brew.

And that broke through.

And so I get this big package.

And I open it up.

And it's an outfit.

And saying, "I want you to wear this

to this gig at The Fillmore."

And he was shocked that
I came to the concert in it.

We took pictures,

and Cash Box put that
on its cover, of me and Miles.

I think Clive Davis...
he knows how to spot talent.

Yeah.

He knows how to give that talent...

room.

To breathe, right.

- You know, to breathe.
- Yeah.

And he did that with Huff and myself.

I said,
"How do we get into R&B music?"

And I made a deal with Gamble and Huff

and financed
Philadelphia International.

- ♪ People all over the world ♪
- ♪ Everybody ♪

- ♪ Join in ♪
- ♪ Join ♪

♪ Start a love train ♪

♪ Love train ♪

The O'Jays, with all their hits.

Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes,

featuring Teddy Pendergrass.

- ♪ If you don't know me by now ♪
- ♪ If you don't ♪

"Me and Mrs. Jones"
by Billy Paul.

♪ Mrs. Jones ♪

♪ Mrs. Jones, Mrs. Jones... ♪

One hit after another.

♪ We got a thing... ♪

Leading me to make my first move.

And the first artist that I signed,

in that connection,

was Earth Wind & Fire.

♪ Do you remember? ♪

We became a major factor
in R&B music.

♪ Love was changing the minds
of pretenders ♪

♪ While chasing
The clouds away ♪

You know, he had
a very three-dimensional sense

of what the music industry
could become.

There suddenly were like,
millions and millions

of young people who love this music.

You know, they weren't
necessarily being served,

and along came someone like Clive Davis
or Ahmet Ertegun who kinda got that.

And, you know,
they built the music business.

The last artist
that I signed to Columbia

was an artist that I think is gonna
happen in a very, very big way.

I got into him, er...

about a year and a half--
Before he was on another label,

The Family Records label.
I'm talking Billy Joel.

♪ It's nine o'clock
On a Saturday ♪

♪ The regular crowd
Shuffles in ♪

You know, because
of the signings that Clive made,

Columbia really became, you know,
the premier label in the country.

Our market share zoomed up.

We went from third place to first place.

We were on fire.

Columbia Records to me became

the biggest and best
record company in the world.

They had a classical department, a country
department, an R&B department--

They were in every aspect
of the music business.

He may have been a lawyer
before he got into music,

but when he got into music,
he was a music man.

I mean, a real music man.

Thank you very much.

I always worried.
I worried in school.

Never assumed because I might've had

an A average that I would get an A.
I would...

I would worry.

I think Clive
took a very specific lesson

from the death of his parents.

The idea that, you know,
you could rise to these heights

and have that just suddenly disappear

was a kind of
deep-seated fear for him,

that un--unbelievably came true
in the world.

It was 1973.

Everything was going great
at the label.

When I had a meeting one day
with the finance department,

and they told me they had uncovered

a fraudulent invoice scheme.

The story begins with Pat Falcone,

a convicted heroin smuggler

with ties to a large
New York mafia family.

Federal agents found documents
in his apartment

that were traced to David Wynshaw,

a CBS Records executive.

I was then told that Dave Wynshaw

had submitted fraudulent invoices,

involving myself,

and forged my signature.

We investigated everything.

And I was cleared,
I was never implicated.

He never claimed that I knew anything,
which I did not.

To get a lower prison sentence,

Dave came up with the allegation

that there was payola

and/or drugola

involved in the record industry,

including Columbia Records.

Well, that made the matter
enormously significant,

to anybody, any company, especially CBS,

with broadcast licenses
from the federal government,

the fear of what
the repercussion might be.

He was working for this
uptight CBS company,

whose television network
was more important to them

than anything with the music.

They had relationships in Washington

and they had to be very careful.

If there was a whiff of a scandal,

somebody will dig into it

and blow up the company.

And, so they dumped him.

Other than the death of my mother,

it was the biggest shock of my life.

He had to leave the building on
the same day that he was fired.

They had a security guard
to escort him out.

It was in all the papers.
It really made him sound like

like he was a...

a crooked guy, and he wasn't.

It was terrible.

It was...

It was a shock to us.

It was, uh, sudden.

And, you know, it was...
and it was public.

You know, all I heard about
was how well everything was,

and the next day, it all ends.

This is the New York headquarters
of the Columbia Broadcasting System,

America's biggest radio
and television network,

and the country's
biggest record producer.

Within 24 hours,
your dad's on the local news,

the front page of the New York Times,

and... and then home.

Before he was fired, Davis was earning

over 300,000 dollars a year,

and was regarded as a genius
in the record industry.

That was a shameful chapter

in Columbia's history, in my opinion.

It was like a public shaming over...

...nothing.

There was a sense in which

Clive was being punished

for, like, an industry
that kind of had gotten uppity.

And there was an element

of the media coverage that just assumed

that everybody was guilty,
that it was all corrupt.

And they had everything but evidence.

For at least a two or three year
period of time,

it was a witch hunt.

He was the big name.

He was the face of the industry
at that point.

He became the person that--

"Well, we got Clive Davis."

And they didn't have Clive Davis.

They came up with nothing.

As Dave Marsh said,

in a big Rolling Stone article,

"What a bust."

What industry could take this kind of

intense laser beam investigation,

and thorough research,
and come up so empty-handed?

So the judge in this case,
his name was Thomas P. Griesa,

an exact quote from his decision.

"I have reviewed the press articles

going back some three years,

and they are appalling in the innuendo
and direct attempts

to connect Mr. Davis

with crimes with which
he never was indicted,

and to say nothing
of never having been convicted.

I have never had a case

where this situation has existed,

at least in anything like the degree

which it exists here."

You know, when you get the vindication,

you really don't enjoy it fully,

because that doesn't quite get
the headlines anything near...

the headlines that the accusations,

that the speculation got.

And that hurt. And it still hurts.

Clive ended up,

I mean, pleading guilty to, like,

a very minor charge about,

you know, expenses on a vacation.

It was like a couple of grand, I think.

And... you know,

that was the end of that.

That's what all of that amounted to.

It's a story that stayed with me.

I mean, maybe more than almost
anything else in the book.

But... because Clive pleaded guilty

to, you know, this charge
about his expenses,

um, there was a subsequent impact
which was,

you know, he would have to apply
for the bar again.

And, who cares?

You know, Clive never had any interest
in practicing law again.

He was, you know,

just astonishingly successful

as the president of a record company.

But in the mid-'90s,
when I saw the numbers,

and Clive was making tens
of millions of dollars every year,

he would go home, every night,
and study for the bar exam.

And then went
and took the test and passed it

and got his law license back.

That's how much this meant to him.

That, you know, 30 years later,

it was still enough on his mind
for him to do something like that.

Er... you know,

I don't think he's
ever really gotten over it.

Even in the midst of the innuendo,

I had gotten offers
from a number of people.

Alan Hirschfield came along
with great enthusiasm,

offering me a new company
that he would set up with me.

The term, "Arista," which is known
in the New York area where I live, er...

was the name of a high school
honorary society of all high schools

in the secondary
school area of New York.

So I felt that it was
both personal and yet

it was also synonymous
with something that was first class.

Alan put in
ten million dollars in cash.

And I could pick any artist

from the previous company

that Columbia Pictures
owned, Bell Records.

In principle, kept two.

They were not known.

Each had one album out before.

Neither was successful
with that first album.

I had done an album, my first album,

for Bell Records,
which sold five copies,

when there was a knock
on my trailer door, and it was Clive.

And he shook my hand and he said,
"Welcome to Arista Records."

And it was the beginning
of a career for me

that I never, ever imagined.

But he said, "You need a hit single."

And then, this messenger arrived
with a package from Clive.

He said, "I think this might be it."

And it was a song called "Brandy."

♪ Oh, Brandy ♪

♪ Well, you came
And you gave without takin' ♪

He was pretty shocked.

"You mean, you think I should record...

an outside song?"

He said to me, "I'm a composer.

Yes, I arrange, yes I sing,
yes I've done commercials, but--"

I said, "You know, when you're
a pop artist, you need hits.

And in going through your album,

I don't think you've got a first single.

I don't-- You need a first single."

It was a pretty melody.

Only I slowed it down, we slowed it
down, made it-- 'Cause it was like...

- ♪ I remember all my life ♪
- Oh yeah.

♪ Raining down as cold as ice ♪

That's how the demo went, you know?

And, it was very nice.

But I--I suggested to him
at the recording session,

"Now, why don't we do it like...

...really easy, you know?"

And he sat there. I remember him sitting
in the recording studio like...

So ladies and gentlemen, the newest star
for America,

Mr. Barry Manilow.

♪ Oh, Mandy ♪

♪ Well, you came
And you gave without takin' ♪

♪ But I sent you away ♪

♪ Oh, Mandy ♪

It became the first record
out on Arista...

and it went straight to number one.

You know, when you start a company,
from scratch, so to speak,

with an artist such as Barry Manilow
who sells millions of albums,

we have become in a
three-and-a-half year period of time,

the sixth largest record company
in the United States.

♪ Don't cry out loud ♪

We've had gold albums
from Melissa Manchester and The Outlaws.

We've had platinum albums
from Alan Parsons, with I Robot.

♪ S-A-T-U-R-D-A-Y, night! ♪

We have the Bay City Rollers.

And I've attracted The Kinks,
Lou Reed, The Grateful Dead.

♪ Livin' in
A rock 'n' roll fantasy ♪

Clive was the one suit
that we weren't distrustful of.

He had a reputation for, you know,

having the ear, you know?
The golden ear.

♪ We used to play for acid ♪

♪ Now we play for Clive ♪

Clive came in there, and, I wouldn't
necessarily say it was overnight,

but, in a very, very short
period of time, all of a sudden,

Arista became
a very competitive label.

♪ All by myself ♪

Using Columbia as a model,

I wanted Arista
to be in every area of music.

♪ I said what's the word? ♪

♪ Tell me brother
Have you heard ♪

♪ From Johannesburg? ♪

There was Gil Scott-Heron,

in a major sense, the first rapper.

♪ The revolution
Will not be televised ♪

♪ The revolution will not
Be brought to you by Xerox ♪

♪ In four parts without
Commercial interruption ♪

And he represented, you know,
that part

of New York
that I associate Arista with.

We were a New York label.

We were so much in the forefront,

of the hip, happening cultural explosion

that was taking place in New York.

We had the only Saturday Night Live
comedy album.

If Lily Tomlin was doing

her heralded Broadway Show,

we recorded it.

So we were very much
in the center of New York life.

You know, someone like me,
who is so irreverent, unskilled,

and, you know,
quite the diamond in the rough,

might seem like
an odd choice for Clive.

But I've learned through the years

that Clive really
has a weakness for artists.

♪ Jesus died ♪

♪ For somebody's sins ♪

♪ But not mine ♪

She became my favorite.
What can I say?

You can see
the spit coming down and some--

I don't mean to paint
an unflattering image, but--

you're dealing with
the real thing. No artifice here.

No, "Is my make-up
in the right place?"

She was there, tearing your heart out,
stimulating your mind.

♪ Because the night
Belongs to lovers ♪

♪ Because the night
Belongs to lust ♪

"Because the Night" was my
first record I ever produced.

Clive is very cool with Patti.
He let her do her thing.

See, that's very important to know.
'Cause a lot of people say

he controls a lot. But Patti,

and artists like that, he just lets
them do their thing.

Clive knows
there're two types of artists:

There's the self-contained artist,
and there's the artist

that you have to actually
A&R the project.

I say Clive and Berry Gordy
are up there

as the top two
A&Rs of all time history.

It's difficult,
in the rock area, to say,

"Oh, I'm gonna sign an artist
that is gonna explode."

So I began for the first time,

really meeting and
beginning relationships

with what we call music publishers
who sign writers.

And you play

the material of the artist

and you say, "I need hit songs."

Artists always have
their own album cuts.

I need hit songs.

We do the full chorus similar
to the first time it appears,

- Okay.
- ...rather than what it was the second.

And that's it. And I think it's another
great Jim Steinman song.

Clive was A&R, which
stands for "artist and repertoire."

He would take an artist,
and take a song,

and say, "You should do this song."

I mean, that's what happened
when he went to Arista.

♪ I write the songs
that make the whole world sing ♪

Every song he submitted to me
has been right on the money.

He showed me "I Write the Songs"
and he showed me "Looks Like We Made It"

and "Weekend in New England"
and this newest one

"Can't Smile Without You."
And every time he submits one,

I say, "I don't think
that's a good song at all.

I think you're crazy."
And he's always right.

♪ You know
I can't smile without you ♪

Clive comes from his heart.

Every time Clive said,
"This is a hit record,"

it moved him and that's what happened
to the audiences.

If I got it right, it moved you.

♪ When will our eyes meet? ♪

♪ When can I touch you? ♪

As much as his gratitude was,

for the fact that every song
I was submitting

turned out to be a big hit
and a signature copyright...

there was some element of it
which bothered him.

And he very candidly looked at me,

and he said, "Clive,
I love what you're doing,

but it's so different from my dream.

My dream, all my life,
I was a composer.

My dream, all my life,
is I'm an arranger. I'm a musician.

And you have turned me
into Andy Williams."

And I said, "Pop artists need
a continuity of hits.

Otherwise the public, if they don't
hear you on the radio,

they don't know that you're out
with a new release."

So we both had the satisfaction,
because from the songs,

Barry had been inducted into
the Songwriters Hall of Fame.

And the very next year,
he asked me to present him

with the music society's biggest award,

and that is the Ella Award.

It goes to the great singers,
like Sinatra,

like Tony Bennett,

like Johnny Mathis.

So that sums up,

you know, where he can have
his satisfaction as a writer.

And I can have my satisfaction

of always viewing him as
a great interpretive performer.

And that's why he sells out
stadiums to this very day,

all over the world.

♪ I've been up, down ♪

♪ Trying to get
The feeling again ♪

He would give me two songs on each album,
because I built up so many songs...

with his quota of two an album...

that I had a backlog.

I had all these songs.

I should be able to launch
another career.

And I couldn't do it with another male,
so I had to look for a female.

What great voice
was not recording these days?

But should be recording these days?

♪ I know I'll never ♪

♪ Love this way again ♪

I happened to be doing a TV show

that he also was doing,
The Dinah Shore Show.

And he asked was I recording.

And I said, "Uh, you know, I think I...

I've probably had it with recording
at this point in time."

And he says, "Well, let me tell you
one thing, young lady."

He said it just like that.

He said, "You may be ready
to give the industry up,

but the industry is not ready
to give you up."

♪ Deja vu ♪

♪ Could you be the dream that
I once knew ♪

And so I signed her, this past year.

She gave us her first album.
We find that now it's platinum.

♪ Why do you have to be
A heartbreaker? ♪

Because of Clive's expertise in matching

great songs with great artists,
he has that rare ability

to take great, extraordinary artists,

whose careers may have languished
for one reason or another,

and just bring them back
stronger than ever.

Hello.

The Dionne success led
to a relationship with Aretha Franklin.

She was no longer working
with Jerry Wexler,

and her recent records had not made it.

She called me, and we met.

He came out to Los Angeles,
mmm-hmm, in '79.

To my home out in Encino.

He had the reputation of one of
the great record men at that time.

And of course,
now the greatest record man of all time.

♪ We goin' riding on the freeway of love
Wind's against our backs ♪

Because she was already
a national treasure

by the time she and I met,

my job was to come up with those songs

where she can show what she does
like nobody else can do.

- ♪ Knew you were waiting ♪
- ♪ I did ♪

♪ Knew you were waiting
For me, yeah ♪

♪ I didn't falter ♪

♪ Oh, yeah ♪

I really felt appreciated, genuinely,

and I said,
"This is who I'm gonna sign with."

♪ Sisters are doin' it
For themselves ♪

And 40 years later, no, 20 years later,
I said, "You made the right decision.

You made the right decision."

♪ I'm all out of love ♪

♪ I'm so lost without you ♪

He feels what's gonna be popular.

♪ Believing for so long ♪

♪ Come dancin' ♪

Whether it's an artist,
a song, a record, an arrangement.

♪ ...not come dancin'? ♪

♪ It's only natural ♪

He just says, "That one!"

Kenny G.
Who would have ever thought

that a solo sax player
would be so successful?

But that's Clive.
He just says, "That one!"

All day long. That's all I do.

I started off playing
with a band called Jeff Lorber Fusion.

So,
that's how I got introduced to Clive.

Five years later is when he said,

"Do you think Kenny would want
to make his own solo records?"

Got Kenny G's albums,
including the brand new album, Gravity.

He might not have been
the greatest jazz saxophone player,

but those pop melodies,
those notes that he hit,

the looks that he had,
he could be a star.

But these were the days
when there was no radio stations

playing instrumental music.
There wasn't any.

Clive Davis,
this is where he really stepped in.

He starts writing hand-written letters

to the radio programmers
around the country

to play "Songbird" on pop radio.

And that's what really
started my career.

I mean, you know, 60,
70 million albums later,

he's by far the biggest-selling
instrumentalist of all time.

Okay,
so we sold five million on Duotones,

five million on Silhouette.

Then the live record came out,
that sold four or five million.

Now Breathless comes out,
that sells 12 million.

Clive says, "Maybe you
should do a Christmas record."

I said, "Clive, I'm Jewish. Come on."

He goes, "Okay, Irving Berlin wrote
White Christmas.

Jewish. I'm Jewish.
Do a Christmas record."

So I do this 11-song Christmas record.

Clive goes, "Needs a vocal.
Not just an instrumental."

I said, "Clive, that's the whole point.
I want it to be an instrumental

so that it plays from the beginning
to the end with one theme."

He goes, "Okay. Here's the thing.
As your..."

He would call himself,
this is his words,

"I'm your friendly provocateur.

But it's your career.

In my opinion, you do this,
it's a serious career mistake.

But it's your career." That's how
he would always do it, he says,

"You're gonna blow your whole career,
but it's your decision."

He goes, "All right. Put it out."

And it SoundScan's the number one
Christmas record in the history of music.

So I said, "Clive, can I just
say something to you?"

And he goes, "Of course, you're family."

I said,
"Clive, can you look at me now and say

that I was right
about the Christmas record?"

He goes, "No, it would have sold
a lot more if you had listened to me."

- What do you look for in an artist?
- Well you look for originality.

You never know
where you're gonna find them, really.

But, when you see them, when
they have that spark of originality,

when they have that spark of,

uh, whether it be as a performer,
or whether it be as a writer,

uh, you just know you're in the presence
of somebody special.

- She's how old? 19?
- This girl is 19-years-old.

She also happens to be a model.

Yes, she is. She's a beautiful girl.
And, her poise doesn't hurt.

Uh, but it's her natural charm.

I mean, you either got it
or you don't have it.

- She's got it.
- She got it. Wait till you hear her.

Here's Whitney Houston.

♪ When I think of home ♪

♪ I think of a place ♪

♪ Where there's love overflowing ♪

Jerry Griffith, an A&R man
that worked for me at Arista,

told me that he had seen
a young female performer

that he thought was very special.

I started singing professionally at 12,

with my mom doing background sessions,
here in the city,

and then eventually singing with her
in the nightclub.

And that kind of thing.

So I went down to a club
called Sweetwater's to see her.

And I was floored.

One of her songs was
"The Greatest Love of All."

She found more meaning in this song

than I believe
that the composers knew were there.

♪ Makes it all so clean ♪

My mother always told me
to know what I was singing about,

and to be able to feel everything
that you're singing,

or it would never come across.

I knew that there was competition,

that there were one or two labels
that were very interested.

But I definitely got the feeling that
this was a special audition for them.

A few people
were also interested in Whitney,

but Cissy felt that Whitney
would be in better care with Clive.

And that's where the connection started,
right there at Sweetwater's.

♪ And I've learned
That we must ♪

♪ Look inside our hearts ♪

♪ To find ♪

♪ Yeah, we gotta find ♪

♪ A world of love ♪

♪ Like yours, like mine ♪

♪ Like home ♪

♪ Home ♪

You won't forget that name,
Whitney Houston.

I first met Clive in 1984.

Hello there.

We would meet in the office.

And he would always be behind his desk,
playing music.

That was the period where he was
just launching Whitney.

And he was very excited about it.

♪ There's a boy I know ♪

♪ He's the one I dream of ♪

After Merv Griffin,

we had really good buzz,
really good word-of-mouth.

But I know that it's material
that's so key.

So, I held a New York showcase
and I held a Los Angeles showcase,

and invited the most successful
songwriters in the business.

The gathering was a Davis innovation

to introduce one of his newest singers,
Whitney Houston.

♪ How will I know
If he really loves me? ♪

And from that process,
they would submit

their best, top-drawer,
first-rate material to us.

I remember Clive calling me
and telling me to come to his office.

That he needed to see me
and he needed to play some music for me.

Well, in my mind I was like,
"Why don't you just send me the tapes?"

"No. No.

No, I have to be here with you.

I have to feel you.
And you have to feel me."

That was my first lesson.

♪ How will I know? ♪

♪ How will I know? ♪

♪ How will I know? ♪

This demo
that I'm gonna play for you...

this, at the time, could have been done
by Olivia Newton-John.

It would've been somewhat surface,
like pop.

Probably a hit record.

But I knew and heard in my head...

that with a stronger beat...

that the way that Whitney,
with her vocal genius,

it won't be
"I wanna dance with somebody,"

it'll sound like,
"I wanna go to bed with somebody."

It's gonna have far more heat.

It's gonna have far more sensuality.

And it's not gonna be
this very pop-ish record,

'cause we're gonna give it
a tougher bottom.

So this is the way the demo sounded.

♪ I've done all right up 'til now ♪

♪ It's the light of day
That shows me how ♪

♪ And when the night falls ♪

♪ Loneliness calls ♪

♪ Oh, I wanna dance with somebody ♪

♪ I wanna feel the heat with somebody ♪

So, you don't feel the heat
with somebody.

But you do feel,
"I Wanna Dance With Somebody."

Somewhat surface, like very accessible.

Very pop-y in nature.

No question,
Olivia would have had a hit with it.

But Whitney...

had to get it played
on R&B stations.

Urban stations.

♪ Oh, I wanna dance with somebody ♪

♪ I wanna feel the heat with somebody ♪

She broke every format.

Top 40, Adult Contemporary,
Urban R&B.

She conquered everywhere she went.

♪ I get so emotional, baby ♪

♪ Every time I think of you ♪

I mean, this album ended up
selling 22 million copies.

Followed by the second album,
that sold 23 million copies.

She had seven consecutive
number one singles.

It, uh, tied The Beatles' record.

And needless to say,
we were up all night doing tequila shots

after the seventh one went number one.

♪ I get so emotional, baby ♪

And the Grammy goes to, Whitney Houston.

I would say often,
"Are you pinching yourself?"

She'd just look at me and she said,
"I'm pinching myself." She knew.

1987 was a real breakthrough year for us.
It was the "Dance With Somebody" year.

And then you had Aretha
and Dionne Warwick,

Grateful Dead with "Touch of Grey"
came in that year.

♪ Must be getting early ♪

♪ Clocks are running late ♪

We were impossible
to get a decent record out of.

There was always fighting and bickering,

and guys coming to the sessions
drunk or whatever.

But Clive was determined to be the guy

who brought some commercial success
to the Grateful Dead.

During that whole period of time,

we had an incredible run.

♪ I will get by ♪

We gave the Grateful Dead
their first and only top ten hit.

We had incredible success
with "Ghostbusters."

♪ Who you gonna call? ♪

♪ Ghostbusters! ♪

We had "That's What Friends Are For."

♪ Keep smilin' ♪

♪ Keep shining ♪

♪ Knowing you can... ♪

The result was an
A-number-one smash hit,

and nearly $2,000,000
was raised for the cause.

♪ That's what friends are for ♪

Um,
there's also the Milli Vanilli story.

I was there.

More embarrassment today
for the pop group, Milli Vanilli.

It was revealed
they never sang on their album.

♪ Girl, you know it's true ♪

We don't understand that it's us,

the two little guys from Germany.

They recorded the album in Germany.

So I didn't meet Milli Vanilli
until the album was double platinum.

And indeed for the 15th anniversary
show, we put them on Radio City.

Here are Grammy Award winners
for Best New Artist, Milli Vanilli.

We had no inkling.

I want to make it very clear

there was no one that knew
at our record company in America.

One of the biggest hits I ever had
with Clive is a song called

"Blame it On the Rain" by Milli Vanilli.
And I love Milli Vanilli.

I don't care if they didn't sing
or whatever. That album was so great.

It's one of the best pop albums,
like, ever.

♪ Blame it on the rain ♪

♪ That was fallin, fallin' ♪

He took that to them and it became,

I think, the biggest hit
off that album.

Whoever sang it.

♪ Why? ♪

Her batting percentage was incredible.

♪ This is the book I never read ♪

♪ These are the words I never said ♪

We did not take a million artists on.
To be fair to them.

♪ I know nothing stays the same ♪

♪ But if you're willing
to play the game ♪

♪ It will be coming around again ♪

We were either number one or number two
during that whole period of time.

♪ I saw the sign ♪

♪ And it opened up my eyes
I saw the sign ♪

We were smaller than these big,
gigantic, monolithic record companies,

but we were agile
and we fought hard and we won.

Do you have artists that are
good musically, good songwriters,

and excellent performers,
that never make it and you wonder why.

Sure. Every artist that I've signed
that hasn't made it.

There were acts that I believed
would break, and never did.

I remember being so proud
to introduce The Alpha Band.

One of the lead members
was T Bone Burnett.

He was flanked by
this electric violinist,

who would go out into the audience
and cause a sensation.

But, as in baseball,
not every swing leads to a hit.

In the case of the Funky Kings,
it was Jack Tempchin,

who had written several songs
for the Eagles.

But, ultimately, he was not
able to write for the new group.

There's gotta be misses.

I didn't sign Meat Loaf.

He was an unlikely figure, visually.

So I passed.

And John Cougar Mellencamp
was too close to Bruce Springsteen.

And I had signed,
what I felt to be, the real deal.

And of course he was to become

one of the great original
American rock 'n' roll artists ever.

So I thought, "Okay, you got me."

♪ I'm just playin' a part ♪

♪ I ain't got no money ♪

That's why every week
I bring home every chart record

that makes it in any format.

Because someone that's been
in the business for a long time,

you can go over the hill.

I worry, always worried,
will I go over the hill?

Am I going over the hill?

And I come with my satchel
every week in the last 20 years

and I play those chart records
just to see how music is changing.

I decided the early '90s
was the time to go into country music.

Clive took that model
that he found at Columbia Records.

It set out to cover everything.

And if he didn't know that music
himself, he'd find people who knew it.

I interviewed six candidates
and I chose Tim DuBois.

Tim had been a songwriter,
he had been a producer,

and the first artist that he brought me
was the great Alan Jackson.

♪ Well we fogged up the windows
In my old Chevy ♪

♪ I was willin' but she wasn't ready ♪

We were able, in an 18 months period,

to break not only Alan,
but also Brooks and Dunn.

♪ Oh, get down,
turn around, go to town ♪

♪ Boot scootin' boogie ♪

We went from a cold start
to the number two label in Nashville.

And stayed that way all during the '90s.

Can I ask you one serious question?

- Some of--
- How serious is it?

Well, the friction
at the Soul Train Awards.

Where does that come from?

For those of you that don't know--

They booed me at Soul Train Awards.

In the record business,

you've got pop stations,
you've got urban stations.

The urban stations
wanted to claim her more.

I think music is music, you know?

I mean, how do I sing more black,
or how do I sing...

What am I doing
that's making me sound white?

I don't understand, you know.

I'm singing music from my heart,
from my soul, and that's it.

I'm not exactly sure
what singing white is,

but I don't think there is more soul
to be offered than what you give.

♪ How will I know If
he really loves me ♪

I don't know.

Whitney needed an R&B hit.

And who had the best track record
at the time?

It was L.A. & Babyface.

They had had 19 number-one R&B songs

and they agreed to do
the I'm Your Baby Tonight cut.

♪ Whatever you want from me ♪

♪ I'm giving you everything ♪

♪ I'm your baby tonight ♪

L.A. and Babyface
were so perfect for that.

Because they write
the greatest songs to me

because they have great grooves.

But they still have storylines,
and songs that say something.

In the process of delivering
and writing and creating

I'm Your Baby Tonight,
we got to know each other.

We just got along well.

And I was just very fortunate that
they entrusted me with their vision,

which was to have
their own record company.

Clive was the first guy
that took us seriously.

And, you know,
wanted to give us that shot.

We were pretty
successful as producers,

but we didn't know
about discovering talent.

We moved to Atlanta.

We set up shop,
put our flag in the ground,

and it started to work.

They were forging new territory,

and in the way that Berry Gordy
found Detroit for Motown Records,

they established Atlanta.

♪ Un-break my heart ♪

You know, to have Toni Braxton
sell eight million on her first album...

♪ Don't go chasin' waterfalls ♪

TLC selling ten million.

Then Usher coming.

In some ways it felt like
we were accidentally having huge hits.

So after that third album,

and after we had been embraced
by the urban community...

♪ Oh say, does that star ♪

Her version of

"The Star-Spangled Banner"
at the Super Bowl

is such an all-time classic.

Nobody comes even close.

♪ O'er the land of the free ♪

♪ And the home of the brave ♪

But, there was something in her
that wanted to be a movie star.

I'm going to do a film next year.

Yeah. I'm gonna do some acting.
I'll be on the silver screen, so...

She had a very good agent,
a devoted agent in Nicole David,

who helped her locate
the role in Bodyguard.

Originally Clive
was really angry about her doing that,

and angry with me because I was risking
something very precious and very,

uh, important to him.

Well, right before Christmas
one year, I get a call from Nicole.

"I'm gonna send you
the first rough cut."

The first cut came in
and we watched it on video and

the movie wasn't good.

Frank tells me you're a singer.

Yeah, that's right.

There was so little music in the film.

You didn't know why
she needed a bodyguard.

Watching that first cut
almost ruined my Christmas vacation.

I came back and I wrote a letter.

And I said,
"You can't make her first movie

totally a spoken word thriller
with one song."

I know that this will be interpreted as,

"Here I'm the head
of Whitney's record company.

Where's the music,
and what will the soundtrack be?"

But I gotta tell you,
this movie could be so much greater

if we had Whitney be Whitney
and do her stuff.

And, fortunately, Kevin Costner
responded to that letter.

♪ Don't make me close one more door ♪

It was Kevin Costner
who asked for more songs.

♪ Don't walk away from me ♪

And the movie was transformed.

♪ I have nothing... ♪

And it was Kevin Costner
who had decided on

the Dolly Parton previous hit of
"I Will Always Love You"...

♪ If I should stay ♪

♪ Well, I would... ♪

...who sent it simultaneously
to David Foster, Whitney, and me.

♪ And so I'll go ♪

I listened, and said,
"Wow, that is perfect."

Whitney said the exact same thing.
David said the exact same thing.

That's how "I Will Always
Love You" got in the film.

♪ And I ♪

♪ Will always... ♪

When I mixed "I Will Always Love You,"

I did a rough mix of it.

I'd sent it to him on a DAT.

I thought, you know, he's gonna
make a bunch of changes anyway.

He calls me back,

"I love it! It's perfect!
Don't touch a thing!"

In Clive Davis' world this is
unheard of. This never happens.

"I just want to make a couple of changes."
"Don't touch anything, it's just perfect."

So I went in and spent,
like, 12 hours.

I tuned the saxophone,
I put new guitars on,

I did all the stuff that
I had wanted to do.

And he heard it,
and he said, "I hate it."

I got really crazy with him. He
started yelling and I started yelling.

And, you know, I was kind of a hothead.

There was not an obscenity
known to mankind

that was not thrown my way.

He said, "David.
I think we should hang up

before one of us says something
that we're gonna regret."

♪ And I will always... ♪

Meantime, Warner Bros. is saying,
"When is the single coming out?

We're ready to distribute the movie."

And so, I pushed the button...

without getting back to David,

for that first version that I heard.

♪ Will always ♪

♪ Love you ♪

♪ I will always... ♪

We used that DAT he carried around

all summer in his pocket.

And that got mastered
to become the single

of the century's greatest love song.

♪ ...love you ♪

I think people think
about his public persona,

the big music man.

I don't think they understand
what a family guy he is.

You know, he stressed
the importance of family.

He was there every weekend.

We would have these, what are
now famous, Sunday night dinners.

Vacations, you know,
several times a year.

And it's very important for him
that we each spend time with each other,

and not just with him.

As busy as he was,
he's dealing with all this talent,

dealing with the corporate structures
and the demands on him to make money.

And every Sunday he would have dinner
with the kids and the family.

That's not typical of a lot of these
guys, you know, operating at that level.

In my late 40s,
after both my marriages had failed,

I opened myself up to the possibility

that gender would not be the factor
of determining my sexuality.

I don't find it extraordinary
that he's interested in both sexes.

He has no narrowness to him.

He's a capacious person.

Do you hope that bisexuality
will be better understood

- as a result of your honesty?
- I honestly do.

I honestly do have that hope
that that is the case.

There was an attitude
towards bisexuality, pervasive,

that you're either gay or you're
straight or you're lying. It's not true.

You don't have to be
only one thing or another.

It's funny, the sense of Clive...

You're just kind of always having,
you know, a feel for the zeitgeist.

You know,
with the discussion of bisexuality,

you know, was something that really
kind of caught the wind

of what was going on in a way that, you
know, I didn't necessarily anticipate.

But I think, you know,
in some way he understood.

And, I'm not sure

he was particularly surprised
by the attention that it got.

- Nice. Whoa, that was good.
- That's on film.

That's on film.

In this tough business, you can
never really rest on your laurels.

If you're an artist,
you have to keep at the cutting edge.

You have to come up
with hit after hit after hit.

And if you're an executive like me,
you have to keep reinventing yourself.

Going from rock, to pop

to urban crossover, to street.

It was very special meeting
Sean "Puffy" Combs.

He had a very specific vision.

The time had come that Top 40
had to change.

That there was, and he saw,
a pending revolution.

A hip-hop revolution.

♪ Just like ♪

♪ Uniblab, robotic kickin' flab ♪

♪ My flavor be
the badder chitter-chatter ♪

♪ Madder than the Mad Hatter ♪

You know, one of my big pitches to Clive
was that hip-hop is an international,

you know, mainstream art form.

And that the records that I was making
and the artists that I was putting out,

could really take over
and change the sound of pop radio.

♪ Hold up, let's make this official ♪

When Puffy kind of articulated his
vision for what hip-hop could become,

I think to Clive that
made a lot of sense.

I mean, that was what happened
with rock 'n' roll.

Puffy came up and played for me
Craig Mack's, "Flava In Ya Ear."

♪ You won't be around next year ♪

♪ My rap's too severe
Kickin' mad flava in ya ear ♪

And then he played me three or four cuts
from an artist that he was grooming.

And to my untrained ear...

it was special.

♪ It was all a dream ♪

♪ I used to read
Word Up magazine ♪

♪ Salt 'n' Pepa and Heavy D
Up in the limousine ♪

♪ Hangin' pictures on my wall ♪

♪ Every Saturday, Rap Attack
Mr. Magic... ♪

When I first played Clive my music,

nobody had heard what I was working on.

We just talked for hours about music
and his knowledge about music.

And hip-hop and the things
that I produced.

It was just mind-blowing.

And he understood
he was hearing something special.

He knew he was hearing a new sound.

♪ Time to get paid
Blow up Like the World Trade... ♪

So, I said
this young man has got the goods.

And I made a deal to finance
Bad Boy Records.

♪ Every step I take ♪

♪ Every move I make ♪

That range of Kenny G
to The Notorious B.I.G.

That's a distance.

♪ I'll be missin' you ♪

♪ Yeah, yeah ♪

♪ Thinking of the day... ♪

We have seven in the top 30,
starting off with Whitney at number one.

Davis's Friday lunch meetings

are a chance
for his entire management team

to sit down with their boss.

These A&R meetings
were super intense.

You would listen to the same things
over and over and over again.

You'd listen to six mixes
of the same song.

Songs would be dissected.

People would vote
on a scale of one to ten.

Really, it was a scale of seven to ten.

He doesn't show it to a lot of people,

but there's a current of insecurity
going through there

that is,
"Wow, if I don't... do the triple,

quadruple, septuple check,

that it's just gonna
come crashing down."

And so the quality control was insane.

And the work hours were...

extensive.

I think every person who is really,
really successful

has a certain amount of fear,
which keeps them going.

And I think he has that, too.

One night Clive said,
"We're gonna go see Santana

at Radio City," and we were,
like... "Okay."

We hadn't had any radio airplay
for a long, long time.

Clive came up to see us
and he told me, he says,

"Carlos, there's two different rings,
playing live, you're ferocious.

You probably knock out most people
who are top selling right now. Live.

But you need some songs."

So Clive announces
that he's signing, you know, again,

after 20 years or whatever,
Carlos Santana.

And we were, like, "Okay."
I mean, Carlos, legendary artist.

But where would his music fit?

The commonality
that Clive Davis and I have...

We have an incredible,
powerful muscle.

It's called imagination.

We can see it. We can imagine it.

And, therefore, we're able to hit it.

♪ Man, it's a hot one ♪

Clive's working on the record,
he calls me up to his office,

and he says,
"I wanna play you something."

He plays me, "Smooth."

I fell out of my chair.

I mean, this may have been
a 50-year-old Carlos Santana,

but the song was as hot
as anything on the radio.

♪ My Spanish Harlem Mona Lisa ♪

There was such speculation.

"Could this be Davis's folly?
Is he acting out of sentiment?"

Well, I hope not.

♪ And if you said,
"This life..." ♪

I just believed
that with the right material,

Santana could sell.

I was extremely amazed, I still
am just the momentum it picked up.

Once we got it on the radio,
it went...

It went bananas.

♪ And it's just like the ocean
Under the moon ♪

♪ It's the same as... ♪

The song went on to be number one

and we sold 22 million albums
around the world.

♪ Maria, Maria ♪

♪ She reminds me of
A West Side story ♪

After "Smooth" broke,
after "Maria, Maria" broke,

I mean, the album just kept soaring.

And, the Grammy goes to...

Supernatural. Santana.

Certainly, anyone who can figure out

how to sell millions of albums

by a rock guitarist in his mid-50s,

who doesn't sing a note...

has earned my eternal admiration.

We were flying high.

The hits we were enjoying that year,

Supernatural, My Love is Your Love,
with Whitney.

I was inducted into
the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame,

I was given
the Lifetime Achievement Award by NARAS.

Sales for the year were looming to
be in excess of a half billion dollars,

bigger than at any time
in our history.

♪ Your love is my love ♪

♪ And my love is your love ♪

And so, I got an invitation
to attend dinner

from Michael Dornemann
and Strauss Zelnick,

the two top officers of Bertelsmann,

a major German company
that had purchased Arista from me.

And I thought I was going there
to be warmly congratulated

at the peak of my career.

It's maybe nine o'clock.

I'm getting ready to pack up
and go to dinner,

and the phone rings. It's Clive.

I just hear this voice like
I've never heard him before.

We have to meet, we have to meet.

I said, "What's wrong, Clive?"

"They want to push me out."

Strauss Zelnick and Michael Dornemann
felt that Clive is 66 now,

it is time for him to step down.

You know, the reason for Clive
supposedly being pushed out

was an age thing at that point.

And it made absolutely no sense,

because Clive wasn't getting old
as it related to music, you know.

Arguably he was getting younger.

The real reason was that
I was making too much money.

They wanted to stop my earning
tens of millions of dollars every year.

And they were trying to come
up with a way to cut their burden.

It's very often people end up in charge,

who really don't understand
what the business is all about.

They don't appreciate the amazing talent
that these people have.

They're not gonna replace Clive.
When Clive goes, that's the end of that.

Up next,

the man at the center of a
cutthroat fight in the music business.

He's in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

But was just forced out
at the record company he founded.

All of a sudden,
there was this public outcry.

There was an enormous amount of press.

The fact of the matter is
you were too old. Right?

Wrong. The fact of the matter is
that I knew I was not too old.

Everybody rallied for Clive. Everybody.

His fiercest competitors
rallied for him to not get let go.

If Arista does not have Clive Davis,
it will be a very different Arista.

The artists started saying,
"How could you do this?"

I can't imagine our industry
without Clive Davis.

With all of this crazy geschrein,
publicly and privately...

I get a call from Strauss Zelnick.

"Let's talk."

♪ I like it in the morning ♪

♪ The morning's much better ♪

Bertelsmann understood

we can't have Clive Davis out there
competing with us.

So we structure this joint
venture by the name of J Records.

Basically he's back in business at BMG,

but now he owns half the company.

My calculus was
that we're gonna need $150 million

to build this business the right way.

$150 million was much bigger
than any label had ever been created.

We are now walking towards
the office of Clive Davis.

I went to see Clive, and I said,

"Look, Clive, I don't know if you're
gonna be able to take me or not,

but if there is any way
I can come with you,

I would really like to."

My loyalty was with Clive.
And, you know, I was building something.

It was an opportunity
to actually do something fresh.

I didn't hesitate.
"This sounds crazy. I'm in."

Every one of the 18
senior executives of Arista

came over to J Records.

That was one of
the most emotionally gratifying

and meaningful situations
that ever happened in my career.

So the deal was $150 million.

It's right there on your left.

Five platinum artists
from those that would come with us,

and five new artists
that were in development.

Of course, there were
certain artists that were off-limits.

Carlos was off-limits,
Whitney was off-limits,

Kenny G was off-limits.

So our focus
was really on the new artists.

- Thank you. Hi.
- That doesn't cut it. No, no, no.

- No. No. I'm at Clive's table. Thank you.
- Very good.

Happy Birthday!

This is really a night where each
and every one of you here tonight

will make a discovery.

Ladies and gentlemen, Ms. Alicia Keys.

At 16,
I was signed by Columbia Records.

The people at Columbia really
didn't understand what I was doing.

♪ Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
Yeah, yeah ♪

♪ Come on ♪

And so, my manager at the time,
he was like,

"Well if they don't get you,
then let's find somebody that does."

I'll never forget meeting Clive.

I remember him being
really appreciative,

and celebratory of the fact
that I was my own artist.

And I remember feeling so inspired.

It's like Clive saying, um,

there are so few times where
you really find that special artist.

And I think Alicia was the one,
you know, that came after Whitney.

♪ I keep on fallin' ♪

♪ In... ♪

♪ In love ♪

People really liked "Fallin',"
but it defied all genres.

It didn't have a place at radio.

♪ Sometimes I love you ♪

We were slipping a little bit.

We weren't getting the momentum
that we knew the song deserved.

Clive did something
I don't think he had ever done.

He wrote a letter to Oprah.

And she's here to sing her first single,
called "Fallin'."

Please welcome Alicia Keys.

♪ I keep on fallin' ♪

♪ In and out of love ♪

♪ With you ♪

He knew that if people
could lay their eyes on me,

if they could see what he saw,

that they would see what he saw.

♪ I, I, I ♪

♪ Never felt this way ♪

The brilliant thing
about Alicia Keys was

she was exactly the sort of thing
that Clive Davis

was not supposed to be able
to do anymore.

Which was discover, like,
a hot new young talent,

who was gonna
stand the industry on its head.

Okay. She's it.
Alicia Keys. Thanks, Clive.

- Thanks, Clive.
- Thanks, Clive.

"Thanks, Clive."

So we had a lot
of wind behind our backs.

We had success with Alicia,
we had success with Luther Vandross.

♪ If I could get
Another chance ♪

I have been a fan of Clive's for...
ever.

Let's just say I was available
when he called me.

♪ I guess I'll never know ♪

We had successes
just about with every release.

- ♪ Break yo' back ♪
- ♪ Come on! ♪

- ♪ Break yo' back ♪
- ♪ Come on! ♪

Busta Rhymes' first album went platinum.

♪ And she will be loved ♪

We had Maroon 5.

♪ Yeah, here comes the water ♪

And rock with Velvet Revolver.

♪ Wash away the sins
Of you and I ♪

Clive just liked having hits.

But not just hits.
He wanted big hits.

We have the results.

This is the moment...

the country has been waiting for.

It still felt a bit gimmicky,
the whole competition.

Which to be fair, you know, in the past,
that's what it had been.

There was some success
in other countries.

But more as a souvenir.

There had never really been
talent show winners

who could have recording careers.

The winner, of American Idol...

Kelly Clarkson.

The show had found a superstar.

And I said to him, "Look, this girl
is dependent upon you backing her.

You've gotta get behind her.
You've gotta help with the songs."

We're gonna use the same
process finding material for them

as we do with our A-plus superstars.

Pop music had been changing.
There was no new Barry Manilow.

There was no new Barbra Streisand.

I thought this program
would enhance the opportunity

to break pop artists.

We did great.

♪ Since you've been gone ♪

They would literally fly these kids
from winning that night

on a plane to New York,

and then we were sitting
in an office the next day,

and I was there playing them songs.

♪ Jesus, take the wheel ♪

♪ Take it from my hands ♪

♪ 'Cause I can't do this
On my own ♪

Celebrating
the 33 million sales, worldwide.

So congratulations,

and thank you for everything
that you've done for this show.

J Records had emerged
as an "instant major."

♪ You go to my head ♪

♪ And you linger
Like a haunting refrain ♪

Myself and Richard Perry,
one night after a few bottles of wine,

started just, you know,
around the piano,

singing some
of the Great American Songbook.

We took it to three different labels
and they all said no.

I knew there was one person
who would get it, if anybody would.

So, I went to see Clive.

He said,
"This is terrific. We can do this."

We all gathered in one of the
bungalows that Clive always stays in.

And Clive said,
"Well, I want it to be Fred and Ginger."

And he got up and started dancing
around the room.

Then Arnold got up
and started dancing around the room.

So did Richard Perry and I.

Clive would be in the studio
in New York at two in the morning.

Going over tracks,
and checking tempos,

and making sure it was dance-y enough.

Make it dance-y enough. You know?

♪ The way you hold your knife ♪

♪ The way we dance till three ♪

Prior to it being released,
they got CDs sent to high-end shops,

all around the country,

so if women were shopping
at Jimmy Choo for shoes,

or Bergdorf Goodman,

they would be hearing
Rod Stewart singing these songs.

♪ They can't take that
Away from me ♪

Thank you, Clive.
Thank you for your belief.

And I think that's
the most important thing.

You believed in us
right from the start.

Let's hope it'll be number one
next week.

Yeah.

This album just exploded,

as did the second and third
and fourth volume.

You know,
we were having a lot of success.

And, at the same time,

L.A. Reid had come into Arista,

Zelnick and Dornemann
at this point had been fired.

And, you're in a situation where
Arista and L.A. were struggling.

I became the president
of Arista Records.

Uh, I thought it was growth.

I thought it was some kind of
an accelerated career move.

But, as it turns out,

it was... a foolish guy
stepping into the shoes of an icon.

I had a meeting
with the new head of BMG.

And he said, "Look, I'm gonna propose

that we create BMG North America.

And I'm gonna make you head.

And you will now be head
of the group that contains RCA Records,

Jive Records,
and you will get back Arista Records."

Yeah.

I remember the day.

I remember the moment.

When Clive called me
to his office, and he said,

"Ree, I got something
that I want you to hear."

♪ Like a warrior that fights ♪

♪ And wins the battle ♪

♪ I know the taste of victory ♪

♪ Though I went
Through some nights ♪

♪ Consumed by the shadows ♪

♪ I was crippled emotionally ♪

He had a 25 year legacy
that was coming back,

and everything had come full circle.

It was a very emotional moment,
because he was also reunited

with many of the artists that had been
part of his life for so long.

♪ I write the songs
that make the whole world sing ♪

He was then working
with Whitney again,

and he was working with Santana again.

And he was working with so many
of the original Arista artists.

♪ ...that make
The young girls cry ♪

♪ I write the songs,
I write the songs ♪

♪ And I write the songs ♪

So much of the conversation
about my father,

you know, there are a...

Just a few artists
that defined his career.

People talk about Joplin and Springsteen
and those early culture changing moments.

But, invariably,
people talk about Whitney,

and the success
that they soared to together.

In the world, he was the only person

that she really believed...

knew the answers.

Even when she would fight with him,

even when she didn't want to record.

Even when she didn't
like anybody that day,

she believed in him 100%.

He treated her like a daughter.
You know?

So she became like a member of
our family, 'cause how he treated her.

Without a doubt. I mean,
the deepest relationship that Clive had

with any artist was with Whitney, you
know, there was unprecedented success.

You know, like, finding her
when she was still a teenager.

And, you know, kind of going on
this unbelievable ride.

And then of course,
you know, the downfall.

Something that was very difficult
for Clive to understand.

Your name's been
in the headlines in association

with a rather bizarre few months
surrounding Whitney Houston.

Allegations that there are
substance abuse problems.

Have you talked to her
about it, point blank?

I have never talked to her about anything
other than her professional career.

And, with respect to her
professional career, she is at the top.

We have this thing of denial,
kind of, in our family.

He didn't really want to know
what she was doing.

You know, to this day,
if you talk to Clive about Whitney,

he'll talk about her smoking.

It was always smoking.
Stop smoking and stuff.

But that's how he coped with it.

He couldn't believe
his little girl did this.

I mean, I remember when I went
to interview her for Rolling Stone

and she was smoking.
I thought, like,

"Man, you have that voice
and you're smoking?"

I mean, that struck me as...

You know, there's a line
from W.H. Auden like,

"A crack in the rim of a teacup
leads to the land of the dead."

And that was the crack in the teacup.

So much of what you hear
was rumors and gossip.

When he would go,
and he would engage her,

he wouldn't necessarily see that.

He was seen, by her,
as this industry father figure.

And so any time that
she came to see him,

she would put on her best clothing.

She'd make herself up.
She'd get her hair done.

She'd walk in with the smile of a woman

looking to please, you know,
that type of person in her life.

So he would always see her at her best.

Since the Grammy performance

is starting off
with this stuff, I think it's okay.

And with Clive,
he kept her right there,

particularly with the music.

He provided a lot of structure that,
you know, was the challenging part.

You know, his expectations,
his standards, were very high.

And she met those standards
when she worked with him.

Yeah.

Gossip surrounding
Houston's alleged drug abuse

has followed her for weeks.

You know, the tough thing is,
nobody really knows what's going on.

In the middle of tabloidal stories,

chronicling a tumultuous marriage,

speculating as to the degree
of mutual drug use.

And was I active?

At this point, I had to be.

Bobby, for some infraction, was in jail.

And behind the scenes,
I got his agreement

that he would go into rehab
if she did.

So I invited her to this home.

She came with her daughter.
With her aunt.

And after dinner, I said,
"You know, we should talk.

Because you've always
been there for me.

We've had an incredible
professional life together.

It's unmistakable,
now, that you're fighting drugs.

Whitney, you won't win this battle."

She sat there, and gauged me.

She said,
"It's not as bad as you think.

It's occasional use.

I'm not ready to do that."

She didn't deny it.

But...

She had not sunken to that level
that I imagine

that the addicted have to sink to
in order to get help to save themselves.

And so that did fall on deaf ears.

After years now of rumors,
and silence on her part,

about the cancellations,
erratic behavior,

her explosive marriage,

and the headlines that she was
near death because of drug use,

or partying, as she calls it.

The last time most of us saw her,
the Michael Jackson concert.

I come to Madison Square Garden.

And she came on stage...

and I literally gasped.

She was near being a skeleton.

I couldn't believe my eyes.

And I could barely watch her.

I was heartsick.

It was very hard
for Clive to understand...

Whitney's descent.

You know, Clive loves his life,
you know, he has this incredible energy,

to this day,

you know, about being Clive Davis,
day in and day out.

So, why you would essentially
want to destroy yourself?

I don't think that
that made any sense to him.

"My dear, dear Whitney.

The time has come.

Of course I know that your
power of denial is in overdrive.

I join your mother
in pleading with you

to face up to the truth now.
Right now.

You need help.

And it must begin now.

I will stand by you with love and caring
to see you through it...

to newfound peace and happiness,

to inspire the rest of the world.
Love, Clive."

So we segue... to 2004.

I was called by
the Princess Grace Foundation,

that at the World Music Awards,

they would like to present me
with their Lifetime Achievement Award.

And I get this call
the day before that.

From Whitney.

And she said, "Clive. How could you
accept this award without my being there?"

I said, "Whitney...

the last time I saw you...

you were a skeleton."

She said, "Clive,
I'm looking much better.

I'm still a little thin,
but I'm looking much better.

And vocally, I could do it."

I said,
"Okay, look. I'll tell you what.

I don't know what you look like.
I don't know what you sound like.

If you're up to it,
I'll make arrangements."

We all know...

in our industry...

the artists, the songwriters,
the producers, the executives.

Ladies and gentlemen,
the best singer in the world today,

Ms. Whitney Houston.

As soon as she was introduced,
and started singing...

coming out of the darkness,
you could barely see her...

and coming forward slowly...

and the fans went nuts.

They couldn't believe their eyes.

♪ I believe in dreams again ♪

♪ I believe that love
Will never end ♪

♪ And like the river
Finds the sea ♪

♪ I was lost ♪

♪ Now I'm free ♪

♪ 'Cause I believe in you ♪

♪ And me ♪

She went to rehab.

You know, and she saw
how helpful it was to her.

She was trying to get herself together.
It was a struggle, but she was doing it.

♪ I was lost ♪

♪ But now I'm
I'm free ♪

♪ 'Cause I ♪

♪ I do believe in you ♪

♪ And me ♪

And that's the way
that I remember Whitney.

911, emergency.

Hi, how are you doing? This is
security from The Beverly Hilton.

- What's going on?
- I need some paramedics.

Apparently, we have a 46-year-old
female, found in a bathroom.

That's all I've got right now.

I know that Whitney never...

intended to leave so early.

We all thought that she had beat it.

And she obviously didn't.

Singer Whitney Houston,

one of the greatest voices
of our generation, has died.

Whitney Houston
was supposed to be staying here

for her mentor Clive Davis's
famous pre-Grammy party.

Instead, this is where she died.

And as Hollywood mourns,

investigators are now
trying to piece together

the star's final moments.

She was extremely happy
leading up to that day.

But she was also very disturbed.

And I knew that.

I knew that.

I was informed about this
just a few hours...

before my dinner.

I literally, obviously, went into shock.

And I tried to determine
what would be the right thing to do.

Everything stopped.
So everyone was wondering, like...

Will the pre-Grammy go on?
Hell, will the Grammys go on?

There was a tremendous amount of scrutiny.
My father was not able to mourn privately.

We got in the limousine, we turn
on the TV as we're going to the party,

and there's a helicopter view of us
in the limousine on CNN.

You know, you're in the car, looking up.

It was very surreal.

I saw tears behind the closed door.

But he had to wipe them away and
head out under the glare of the cameras.

You know,
I saw real strength of character,

to compose himself
and be a leader of other people.

I felt... that the show must go on.

I felt, in the tradition
of music and show business...

that the show does go on.

Whitney was there for that show.

Loved it.

She would want it to go on.

So...

By now, sadly...

you've all learned
of the unspeakably tragic news

of our beloved Whitney's passing.

I don't have to mask my emotions.

Not in front of this room...

full of so many dear friends.

I do have a very heavy heart.

And I am personally devastated

by the loss of someone who has meant
so much to me for so many years.

You know, I think a lot of people,
you know, that were there,

they felt really weird
about what was going on,

but it was something
that we had to deal with.

And we wound up,
because of Clive dealing with it

as a musical family, all together.

When I found out in the news today,
I was literally in a state of shock.

You know,
I immediately thought about...

her mother, Cissy, her father...

her daughter, her family, her friends.

And Clive Davis.

It's rare in this industry that you get
somebody to really ride with you.

Imagine going through some
ups and downs like that.

And having somebody stand by your side

when the whole world
is turning their back on you.

Somebody that believes in you.

Somebody that's gonna be there for you
in your darkest hour.

That's the type of man Clive Davis is.

♪ Yeah ♪

♪ I believe ♪

♪ That children are our future ♪

♪ Teach them well and ♪

♪ Let them lead the way ♪

The loss of Whitney came about
as suddenly as the loss of my parents.

And profoundly reminded me

how quickly and immediately

vitally important people in your life
can just disappear.

Perhaps being orphaned in life,
substantially deepened the impact

when Whitney
was abruptly taken away from us.

♪ We used to be ♪

♪ Everybody's searching
For a hero ♪

♪ People need
Someone to look up to ♪

Clive loves his artists,
he believes in his artists,

he believes in himself,
which is important.

All of the people
that were discovered and signed,

and all of the songs,
all of the celebration.

You know, it all stems from
that authentic love of music

and of the people who create it
and perform it.

You know, what's important is,
really, I guess, at the end of the day,

did you have a good time
doing what you did?

I'm not sure anybody loves
what they do more than Clive.

He kinda has this certain movement
that he does with his finger.

When he likes stuff,
or when it's coming to the climax.

♪ Because the greatest ♪

♪ Love of all ♪

At the end of the day, it's very small.

It's that original love of music.

It's the Broadway shows
that he went to as a kid.

That connection.

That's really what it's about for him.

He understands
it all comes down to a song.

That's his world.
He's a music man.

And that's what he lives for.

♪ The greatest ♪

♪ Love of all ♪

Clive loves the process.

In love with the process today as he was
when I first met him all those years ago.

He's in love with this business,
and that's why he'll never give it up.

This is an artist that I believe in.

Let me introduce you to Avery Wilson.

You know, it takes a very special
person, at 80-some years old,

to do the day-to-day that he does.

I give him a lot of credit.

Clive will never, ever retire.
He'll never leave music.

He's gonna be in his office,
until the wee hours of the morning,

"Bring the guitar up."

"Let's bring the vocal down."

The idea that this gift of music,

that I never expected to be part
of my life, became my passion.

I'm blessed.

And truly, so gratified.

And the best achievement in life
is to love your work.

There is no greater reward,
to not count hours,

not to work nine to five,

not when it's midnight
or 2:00 a.m. and you're still working,

and know that you're energized by it.

For me, he stood for everything I wanted
to be if I was going to be successful.

He's either introduced
us to more artists,

more songwriters, more songs,
than any other person.

Ever. Ever. In music.

It's love, baby.

You do the thing that you really
love to do and you carry on.

Well let's put it this way.

Five years ago, Jay-Z,

who would have thought
that you would have retired before me?

♪ Find your, find your ♪

♪ Your strength ♪

♪ In ♪

♪ In love ♪

♪ Busted flat in Baton Rouge ♪

♪ Waitin' for a train ♪

♪ And I was feelin' near as faded
as my jeans ♪

♪ Bobby thumbed a diesel down ♪

♪ Just before it rained ♪

♪ It rode us all the way
To New Orleans ♪

♪ I pulled my harpoon ♪

♪ Out of my dirty red bandana ♪

♪ I was playin' soft while Bobby
Sang the blues, yeah ♪

♪ Windshield wipers
Slappin' time ♪

♪ I was holdin'
Bobby's hand in mine ♪

♪ We sang every song
That driver knew ♪

♪ Freedom's just another word
For nothin' left to lose ♪

♪ Nothin', don't mean nothin',
hon if it ain't free ♪

♪ No, no ♪

♪ And, feelin' good was easy, Lord ♪

♪ When he sang the blues ♪

♪ You know, feelin' good
Was good enough for me ♪

♪ Good enough for me
And my Bobby McGee ♪

♪ From the Kentucky coal mine ♪

♪ To the California sun ♪

♪ There Bobby shared the secrets
Of my soul ♪

♪ Through all kinds of weather ♪

♪ Through everything we done ♪

♪ Yeah, Bobby baby
Kept me from the cold ♪

♪ One day up near Salinas, Lord ♪

♪ I let him slip away... ♪

♪ I just want you close ♪

♪ Where you can stay forever ♪

♪ You can be sure ♪

♪ That it will only get better ♪

♪ You and me together ♪

♪ Through the days and nights ♪

♪ I don't worry 'cause ♪

♪ Everything's gonna be all right ♪

♪ People keep talking ♪

♪ They can say what they like ♪

♪ But all I know is ♪

♪ Everything's gonna be all right ♪

♪ And no one, no one, no one ♪

♪ Can get in the way
Of what I'm feeling ♪

♪ No one, no one, no one ♪

♪ Can get in the way
Of what I feel for you ♪

♪ You ♪

♪ You ♪

♪ Can get in the way of what
I feel for you ♪

♪ When the rain is pouring down ♪

♪ And my heart is hurting ♪

♪ You will always be around ♪

♪ This I know for certain ♪

♪ You and me together ♪

♪ Through the days and nights ♪

♪ I don't worry 'cause ♪

♪ Everything's gonna be
All right ♪

♪ People keep talking ♪

♪ They can say what they like ♪

♪ But all I know is ♪

♪ Everything's gonna be all right ♪

♪ No one, no one, no one ♪

♪ Can get in the way of what
I'm feeling ♪

♪ No one, no one, no one ♪

♪ Can get in the way of what
I feel for you ♪

♪ You ♪

♪ You ♪

♪ Can get in the way of what
I feel ♪

♪ I know some people
Search the world ♪

♪ To find ♪

♪ Something like what we have ♪

♪ I know people will try ♪

♪ Try to divide
Something so real ♪

♪ So till the end of time ♪

♪ I'm telling you
That in the world ♪

♪ No one, no one ♪

♪ Can get in the way of what
I'm feeling ♪

♪ No one, no one, no one ♪

♪ Can get in the way of what
I feel for you ♪