Alicia Keys, Patti Smith, The Boss and others pay tribute to Clive Davis

The biggest names in contemporary music honored iconic producer Clive Davis after learning of the 94-year-old’s death on Monday.

“This is thanking Clive Davis for transforming music, and on a very personal note, for believing in me, shepherding my efforts and a half century of your love and support,” singer and songwriter Patti Smith wrote on Instagram.

Smith, who recorded on Davis’s Atlantic Records label, had numerous singles in the 1970s including “Because the Night,” which she penned with fellow Davis admirer Bruce Springsteen.

“Over here on E Street, we mourn the death of the great record man and close friend Clive Davis,” the Boss wrote on social media.

Springsteen signed with Columbia Records in 1972 when Davis ran that label.

“He treated me with the same respect and kindness as a 22-year-old nobody as he did after all my success,” Springsteen recalled. “A great man. All our prayers and love.”

Davis’s manager said the Brooklyn native from Crown Heights died in his Manhattan apartment after battling an upper respiratory infection. He helped launch the careers of Janis Joplin, Whitney Houston, Alicia Keys and Carlos Santana, who remembered him as a visionary.

“Clive recognized the light in people,” Santana said in a statement. “He encouraged artists to trust their own voice and step into their destiny.”

Davis said in his 2013 memoir that he identified as bisexual and had been living with a man, but could’ve just easily been attracted to a woman. He’s survived by his four children, eight grandchildren and countless recording artists, including “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)” singer Darlene Love.

“Thank you for believing in artists, creating timeless music, and leaving an extraordinary legacy that will live on forever,” she wrote on Facebook.

Barry Manilow, who recently took time from touring to battle lung cancer, remembered Davis as family on Monday.

“For fifty years we worked together, created together, argued together, and celebrated together,” the Brooklyn-born singer posted on X. “I wish we could do it all again.”

Keys posted a photo of herself with Davis on Instagram, where she called him “the visionary who transformed dreams into reality.”

With News Wire Services