Clive Davis: All His No. 1 Hits on the Billboard Hot 100, From Whitney Houston to Simon & Garfunkel

Clive Davis was a chart enthusiast even before he became a music industry legend. In his 1974 biography Clive: Inside the Record Business (which he co-wrote with James Willwerth), he explained his fascination with charts, which, he said, grew out of an earlier obsession with baseball statistics and Variety’s lists of top box-office hits. Related “It was an extension of the star syndrome,” he wrote, “measuring how singers did against each other, watching their songs climb the Hit Parade. I was a reader of charts and statistics, and I found an excitement in them which is hard to explain, as if they represented a form of energy.” (Emphasis in the original.) Since Davis was a chart fan to begin with, imagine what a kick it must have been for him to see his companies’ records ascend to the top spot on Billboard Hot 100, especially in the nearly four decades that he directly oversaw day-to-day operations at a succession of labels: CBS (Columbia and Epic), Arista and J Records. According to Davis’ official bio, the exec was appointed vp and general manager of Columbia Records in 1966. In 1967, he was named president of the company. He oversaw Columbia and
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