They called him 'the Man with the Golden Ear.' Clive Davis was a figure so powerful that when CDs first appeared in the 1980s, one industry in-joke pretended the discs were so-called after his initials.

He signed Janis Joplin to kickstart his career, made Bruce Springsteen and Whitney Houston household names and carried Carlos Santana and Aretha Franklin to newfound fame.

Clive Davis, the legendary music executive who shepherded the careers of Whitney Houston, Barry Manilow and Alicia Keys, is dead at 94.