Clive Davis: The Soundtrack of Our Lives (2017) User Reviews

Detailed but not too deep history of a music industry icon

[lenab-30920 · 8/10 · 3 October 2017]

This documentary is a detailed look at the career of Clive Davis, an icon in the music industry. He brought Columbia Records into Rock (Janis Joplin, Bruce Springsteen), co-founded Arista records (1st act was Barry Manilow) creating hit records for over 40 years and showing an amazing ability to change with the times. The documentary is primarily chronological, briefly mentioning his childhood and early career, moving quickly to when he became President of Columbia Records - a job he never imagined getting. It is then mostly about the hit acts he found with stories by employees, artists, some critics, competing executives, Davis himself, and much wonderful archive footage. Because there is so much to cover (Janis Joplin to Alicia Keys) the music is in small clips - you don't get full songs. But you know so many of the songs that you fill in the context yourself. His relationship with Whitney Houston (almost a father-daughter connection) occupies a significant part of the film, including her decline and tragic death.

Since Davis participated in the film any criticisms of him are mild. There is almost nothing about his personal life. And while some commentators say that Clive always had suggestions about changing the elements of a song (more drums, more vocal, etc.) there is no explanation of how he does this - I would like to no more about his instincts and how he interprets them. There is also nothing about how the music industry (including radio) changed over his career - he had a unique view being a key player for so long and probably has many interesting insights. But this film still gives quite a look at how one man - a lawyer with no aspirations towards the music business - was such a huge force in popular music for decades.

"...when he got into music, he was a music man!" - Berry Gordy on Clive Davis

[classicsoncall · 8/10 · 2 October 2020]

This film documentary is a great companion piece to the autobiography "Clive Davis: The Story of My Life", written with collaborator Anthony DeCurtis. The book details more of Davis's personal and family life than what you find here, which is OK, because fans tuning in will probably be more interested in the music. A lot of what you learn here is fascinating. like the singer he signed as his very first client - Janis Joplin. Davis had a warmth and manner about him that managed to captivate most every singer and band he came into contact with, and as a result, came to produce an impressive stable of musicians over the course of his fifty plus year career. What's unusual is that there's virtually no one that casts aspersions on the character or business acumen of Davis, and we do hear from a wide range of musical personalities in the documentary, like Bruce Springsteen, Carlos Santana, Steven Tyler, Simon and Garfunkel, and Barry Manilow. Davis's career is traced from his days at Columbia Records (owned by CBS), Arista Records, and eventually to J Records where he brought his talent for matching performers with material in such a fashion that literally anything he touched turned into a hit. Some segments of the story are expanded, such as the treatments offered on Barry Manilow, who recorded the first single on Arista ('Mandy'), Dionne Warwick, and the one person that he most seemed to favor of all his proteges, Whitney Houston. If you have any interest in spanning the musical decades of a master producer, organizer and hit-maker, you have to tune in to this story. And to think, his career came about almost by accident! Check it out.

Very good....BUT

[pattiej-66234 · 6/10 · 8 July 2021]

I thought this was very good, very interesting to learn how he got where he is. Too bad it turned into a Whitney Houston tribute. Big thumbs down on that. Many of his artists suffered similar drug and alcohol issues, so why focus on her?

Great documentary

[T2TLED · 9/10 · 3 January 2021]

The guy is a LEGEND. He IS the music industry. This movie gives you a great overview of his life and YOURS.

Only complaint is I wish it were longer

[mrocco-1 · 10/10 · 18 July 2020]

This would have been even better if it were longer, like a 6 part series. I feel that way about most documentaries, even 'Country' which WAS 6 parts lol. I have to give it a 10 because you need to watch it so you know who this great man is, an icon in the music industry but not a household name. I've known who Clive was since my younger years, but didn't go down any rabbit holes on the topic of Clive Davis until recently. It's inspiring to know he's still working as I write this in 2020. Go Clive!!!

Super Producer

[st-shot · 7/10 · 30 November 2019]

The life of music producer Clive Davis is the history of pop music just before and after Mitch Miller. Working intimately with the biggest names in the business few if any had his expertise or experience and this doc covers most of the creme de la creme of the music scene that Davis either discovered or gravitated toward him. Joplin, Springsteen, Aretha, Dion Warwick, Santana, Whitney, Barry Manilow among many others discovered and promoted by Davis having nothing but kind words for this impresario who had an incredibly keen sense of recognizing talent and selecting songs to promote the artist.

Interesting not so much for Davis's personal life it is the interviews of rock and pop stars over the generations informing us of his incredible acumen while at Columbia and Arista Records that provided us with the "soundtrack of our lives" which gives this doc legs. By the time they get around to the career and tragic life of Whitney Houston Clive's background recedes into it and her dilemma takes center stage, his accomplishment a back seat to her tragedy but not before we get a semi-comprehensive history of pop music over the last 60 years under the stewardship of one of its greatest explorers.

Outstanding

[hilarystanley · 10/10 · 1 October 2021]

I absolutely loved this! Didn't realise what work this fella had/has done ! The music the stories all brilliant. And Clive seems a real nice fella.

The Legend of Clive Davis

[Michael_Arm · 7/10 · 21 November 2021]

This documentary provides a detailed look into the man that helped define the music industry. Davis has an ear for good music and has always been able to redefine himself at the right moment.

From highs to lows Davis's career has seen its share of them all but he's always found away to rise to the top. This documentary will give you insight on his start and continued growth within the music industry and you'll hear from the many people he's influenced throughout his 50+ years within the music industry.

A must watch for any music fan!

CLIVE DAVIS EVERYTHING

[mrene555 · 10/10 · 29 July 2019]

Thee GREATEST RECORD MAN PRODUCER COLLABORATOR with GOLDEN EARS, anD a FEEL for WRITERS SINGERS PRODUCTION A&R, eTc. A TRUE FAMILY MAN ! GREAT DAD ! GOT A PUP NAMED OLLIE and a HARVARD LAW GRAD ! THERE IS SO MUCH TO THIS ICON ! TRULY THEE GREATEST AMERICAN MUSICAL EXPERIENCE EVER ! CLIVE J DAVIS

As if Davis produced his own legacy film

[debmail-09712 · 5/10 · 12 September 2021]

Extremely favorable overview of Clive Davis's legacy, glossing over and excusing potential blemishes in his career, but still interesting. The ridiculously fawning commentary from former colleagues, friends and family is overbearing at times.

Whitney Houston: The Soundtrack of Our Lives

[johngerardmiller · 4/10 · 23 April 2022]

The story of Clive Davis is interesting & informative however, as much as I like Whitney Houston, had I known she would take up half the documentary, I would've thought twice about watching it. It's such a shame other incredibly talented artists from the 70's & 80's weren't included because as is shown throughout, he helped launch a plethora of big names.

Crass

[dierregi · 3/10 · 14 May 2023]

The first artist I think about when I hear Arista records is Patti Smith. We actually get three minutes with Patti and very little time with other legends of rock, such as Janis Joplin and Springsteen, since everything pre-Eighties is sort of skipped over until the day Davis introduced Houston to the world of music. Then the documentary turns into an hagiography of Whitney Houston and afterwards how great Davis was to promote hip hop and such...

It smell so much of political correctness that it made me dislike it. I agree that Houston was an incredibly talented artist and her demise was tragic but it's somehow ironic that this documentary celebrates the exact things that drove her to her untimely death, namely greed and the endless search for the next hit.

Also, I am not a fanny of Manilow and I never heard of Kenny G., therefore there was very little of interest to me and I found the documentary out of focus, overlong and crass in its hypocritical celebration of money grabbing.

A Star & Song Maker . . . .

[sundayatdusk-97859 · 4/10 · 1 June 2023]

This is an uneven documentary that I eventually turned off before the end. It starts off with Clive Davis' childhood and college years being briefly described. He was raised in New York City by Jewish parents. He adored his mother and was devastated when she died when he was in college. His father died shortly after her, but he says nothing about him, which turned out to be a type of foreshadowing of what was to come.

After getting a law degree at Harvard, Mr. Davis started practicing law at a prestigious firm, but ended up strangely being named the head of Columbia Records, even though he knew nothing about music. At the time, Columbia's biggest money maker was Mitch Miller, who hated rock and roll music and said it would never last. Fortunately, Clive Davis was open to the possibility Mr. Miller was wrong.

Someone took him to the Monterey Music Festival and life at Columbia Records would never be the same. The first singer he signed up from there was the ultimate antithesis of Mitch Miller. That singer was Janis Joplin. And on and on he went signing up one successful group after another, including Simon & Garfunkel. After being forced out of Columbia years later by a scandal, Mr. Davis went on to form Arista Records.

Arista's first sign-up was Barry Manilow, a singer most either loved or hated. (Personally, I neither love nor hate him and do have some of his songs on my Sony MP3 player.) He is one of the most amusing commentators in this documentary, and there are lots and lots of commentators, as well as past and present interviews with Mr. Davis. All interviews with others praise Clive Davis to the high heavens, so don't expect this to be an unbiased documentary.

Arista brought back successful singers who were no longer recording, such as Dionne Warwick and Aretha Franklin. That was good, although their newer songs were nowhere near as great as their older songs. (My opinion, of course.) Clive Davis also discovered Whitney Houston, a darling teenager with a commanding voice. If the documentary covers her career until her downward spiral and death, I don't know.

There was little of Mr. Davis' personal life in the film for the most part. Besides the opening parts about his mother and father, there are only quick photo glimpses of his wife and kids, with a few short interviews with sons. It was hard to tell if the wives in the photos and short films were the same. It turns out there were not. About two-thirds or three-fourths of the way in the documentary, Clive Davis addresses his personal life. After having two failed marriages, he said he decided he would not choose future partners in a strict gender way. Huh?

Next, is a film segment of him talking to Katie Couric on her show, where she is asking him if his coming out as a bisexual will improve society's feelings about bisexuality. Mr. Davis replied he hoped so. I then clicked off the Netflix app, my monthly subscription to Netflix was ending in less than 12 hours, and I will never see the rest of this documentary.