No music executive has ever been so powerful as to become synonymous with the whole of the music industry itself. But if anyone came close, it was Clive Davis.

The record company lawyer who became one of the music industry’s most powerful figures, launching or resurrecting the careers of such superstars as Janis Joplin, Whitney Houston, Carlos Santana and Alicia Keys, has died, it was announced on Monday. He was 94.

The greatest way to celebrate the “man with the golden ears”, as he was colloquially known, is to listen to the musicians and songs he was instrumental in turning into career artistes and timeless hits, from starting his career at Columbia Records in the 1960s to today.