Barry Manilow

After being abruptly ousted from Columbia Records, Davis founded Arista Records in 1974 and immediately struck gold by signing Barry Manilow.

Davis personally pushed a reluctant Manilow to record the track Mandy, which became a historic number-one pop smash and gave the newborn label instant commercial legitimacy before triggering a wave of further hits like Copacabana and I Write the Songs.