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Kings and King-makers

There is a word in common usage throughout the English-speaking world, which has its roots in ancient Persia. The word is mogul, and most dictionaries define it as, a personage of great importance: magnate . . . one who wields great power and influence over others.
Nowadays, the word mogul is most often found in a sentence sitting next to the word Media, and in that context it has lost none of its original import.

In this article we examine three such personages who, collectively have wielded such enormous power and influence in the world of Entertainment and Media as to have defined popular culture for much of the world over the past forty years. Their individual stories are striking both for their similarities and for their impact, and it is within those stories that we find both the playbill and the soundtrack of our lives.

Clive Davis

There is nothing in a caterpillar that tells you it's going to be a butterfly.
- Buckminster Fuller

Born in Brooklyn, New York, Clive Davis was a hard working kid from a working-class family, who knew from a very early age that the spoon in his mouth was not made of silver, and that if he wanted to make something of himself in this world he would have to do it all by himself. As a boy he worked hard in and out of school, forsaking some of the normal pleasures that boys enjoy, committed to rising to the top and going from there.
Working his way through high school, then college, he eventually graduated from Harvard Law School and went to work for a New York law firm that had as one of its major clients CBS.
Davis worked closely with the lawyers at CBS subsidiary Columbia Records, impressing them enough to move over to Columbia where he quickly rose through the ranks of the organization. By 1967, he was president of Columbia's parent CBS records, and that is where his legend begins.

Up to that point, Clive Davis' story is just one of millions of universal success storiesa person who worked hard to get an education, advance his career; and through continued hard work, rose to what most people would consider to be the top. But for the moguls of this world, the top is just the beginningthe jumping off point to greatness. For them, the top means there's nowhere to go but up.

When Clive Davis took the reins of CBS the big guns on their roster were Tony Bennet, Mitch Miller, and Andy Williams. At this same time, rival Capitol Records was releasing Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club band, and college kids, even at Harvard,

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