Clive Davis passed away on June 22, 2026, at the age of 94. It’s hard to imagine what the world of popular music would have sounded like without him. His fingerprints were on innumerable hit songs over the years.
In fact, we’re guessing that many music fans might not even realize his impact on some tracks they hear all the time. Here are four occasions where Davis’ influence helped make hit songs happen.
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“Lay, Lady, Lay” by Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan was already well-established by the time Davis started to make his mark at Columbia Records. That didn’t stop Davis from helping bring what would become one of Dylan’s biggest pop hits to the light of day. Dylan wrote “Lay Lady Lay” initially for the soundtrack of the film Midnight Cowboy. But he didn’t submit it in time for inclusion in the movie. Instead, he put it on his 1969 album Nashville Skyline. Even then, he didn’t think the song was a good fit for the LP, and he certainly didn’t think it was good enough to be a single. But David heard radio greatness in the track. After badgering Dylan for a while, “Lay Lady Lay” was released to radio, where it cleaned up.
“Blinded By The Light” by Bruce Springsteen
Bruce Springsteen has never recorded a No. 1 pop hit of his own. But the only song that he wrote that made it to that rarefied air might not have happened without Davis. Shortly after signing with Columbia, Springsteen recorded the songs that he thought would comprise his 1973 debut album, Greetings From Asbury Park, N.J. Davis, as the gatekeeper at the label, listened to what Springsteen had done and decided that he didn’t hear anything too accessible. He forced Bruce to go back in and record more stuff. When Springsteen did just this, one of the songs he wrote and added to the album was “Blinded By The Light”. Although it wasn’t a hit for The Boss, Manfred Mann’s Earth Band took it to No. 1 in 1977.
“All Out Of Love” by Air Supply
Air Supply was one of Davis’ most successful soft-rock discoveries. After seeing how their music did damage in Australia, he signed the duo of Graham Russell and Russell Hitchcock and reaped the rewards when “Lost In Love” hit No. 1 in the US in 1980. For the follow-up single, Graham Russell wrote a tortured ballad, one where he sang the verses and let Hitchcock come in with his towering vocals in the chorus. But when Davis heard the song for the first time, the lyrics went, “I’m all out of love/I want to arrest you.” It was an Australian idiom that would have confused American listeners. He suggested “I’m so lost without you” as the replacement line. Davis ended up receiving a songwriting credit for this contribution to “All Out Of Love”, another big hit.
“Under The Milky Way” by Clive Davis
Here’s Davis once again coming through for an Australian band. The Church had scored success in their native country throughout the 80s. They then nabbed a record deal in the US for the album Starfish in 1988. When writing songs for the album, lead singer Steve Kilbey came up with the acoustic-oriented “Under The Milky Way” with his then-girlfriend Karin Jansson. Kilbey thought the song too subdued to be anything but an album track, adding a bagpipe-like sound on synthesizers because he couldn’t think of anything else. But when Clive Davis heard Starfish, he immediately pegged “Under The Milky Way” as the album’s hit. He was right about what would turn out to be an 80s classic.
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