Chris Farina/Corbis

Chairman and CEO, RCA Music Group
Location New York, NY
Age 74
HLS LL.B. 1956

Every spring, an American Idol season of melisma and melodrama culminates with the appearance of a grandfatherly lawyer in tinted glasses. Surrounded by overexcited semifinalists eager to sign with his label, Davis seems easily the hippest person onstage. And why not? A list of artists he discovered over four decades includes Janis Joplin (Davis claims she proposed to celebrate the deal by going to bed with him; he politely declined), Barry Manilow, Whitney Houston, Bruce Springsteen, Luther Vandross, Dido, and Alicia Keys. In what could have been the twilight of his career, BMG sent Davis packing in 2000, but within four years invited him back to lead the reshuffled RCA Music Group, with more creative control than ever. How does a lawyer born during the Depression keep his fingers on the pulse of 21st-century pop? “It’s your gut,” the “Man with the Golden Ears” told Mike Wallace. “It’s the tingle up your spine. It’s your ears. Whatever the anatomy part that it is, I found that it is a natural gift.”

However… You can thank Davis every time Taylor Hicks tries to sell you an SUV by swiveling his hips.

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