All I did was push the faders up a single decibel and, boom, you could feel the difference. It was kicking and he loved it. He said: “Print it!” I told him: “Bu

All I did was push the faders up a single decibel and, boom, you could feel the difference. It was kicking and he loved it. He said: “Print it!” I told him: “But that’s the demo!” Sly said: “I don’t give a fuck what it is.” That’s his attitude. There's a really good documentary on Netflix about Clive Davis, the Arista Records founder who has probably discovered and mentored more stars and hit records than anyone on the planet. There's a segment about the Whitney Houston soundtrack for "The Bodyguard" and "I will always love you." The recording almost didn't get made at all (the movie studio was reluctant to have Houston do it for some strange reason), but when the demo came out it was so good that they just went with it, and didn't want to risk messing it up with additional production work. Davis, incidentally, was a corporate lawyer in his mid 30s with no musical background when he got started in the music business in the late 60s. He realized there was a major shift in pop music, and further had a "magic ear" for hits (this comment was made by Bob Weir) in many pop genres. In the documentary Barry Manilow basically says his only hits he had were the ones that Davis pushed him to record (I believe from other songwriters). This pattern of Davis and his A&R teams working on the hits was repeated with many artists over many decades. Only a few musicians who were signed to his labels (Patti Smith and Kanye among them) were given a longer leash and more independence.