There have been 40 years of Clive Davis pre-Grammy parties but nothing like the one last night at the Beverly Hilton. It’s been three years since the last gala because of the pandemic, and 11 years since Whitney Houston died. Because of that, Clive emailed Kevin Costner, Whitney’s co-star in “The Bodyguard,” and asked if he’d come and introduce him and talk about the great singer.

No one could have predicted that Costner would give such an emotional speech about Clive and Whitney that the whole room of celebrities and A listers would fall silent and tear up. There wasn’t a dry eye in the house including Costner as the “Yellowstone” star when he said to Clive: “Neither of us could protect our beloved Whitney. Thank you for being her bodyguard. Everyone gets a mom, Not everyone has a Clive.”

As for the culture of pop music, Costner added: “Clive is the man who changed the times we live in.”

And so the night began with stunning performances by Jennifer Hudson, Elvis Costello and Juanes, Lizzo, Sheryl Crow, Maneskin, Lauren Daigle, Latto, Lil Wayne, Lil Baby, and ended with a sensational Myles Frost performing Michael Jackson hits from “MJ The Musical.” Wow!

JHud’s rendition of Whitney’s “The Greatest Love of All” was such a tribute to Houston, all of heaven was probably paying attention. I hope there’s video of it somewhere. Hudson told me backstage that when her hit talk show goes on summer vacation she’s going to make a Christmas album and a pop one. “I haven’t given up my recording career, don’t worry!”

But the other Big Moment was Frankie Valli bringing the crowd to their feet and singing along with him loudly on “Can’t Take My Eyes off of You.” He’s 88 years old and hasn’t lost a step! His gorgeous falsetto, accompanied Rickey Minor’s swinging band, was infectious. Hundreds of people in black tie were waving their hands in the air and singing “Oh pretty baby, if it’s quite alright” at the top of their lungs!

Oh yes and Lizzo — dressed better than ever– actually shook her tail feather. Great voice!

So who was there? Tables and tables of familiar faces. One group included Joni Mitchell, Judy Collins, Stephen Stills and Peter Asher. Verdine White of Earth Wind and Fire was there, so was — and here we go — Sharon Stone, Demi Lovato, Yolanda Adams, Apple’s Tim Cook, Netflix’s Ted Sarandos with wife Nicole Avant her famous father Clarence; plus Olivia Rodridgo, Diane Warren, Michele Lee, legendary Laugh In-creator George Schlatter, Janelle Monae, Richie Sambora, Lil Nas X, Nile Rodgers, Whitney’s producer Narada Michael Walden, Olivia Harrison, Rita Wilson and Tom Hanks, famed hit songwriter Max Martin, Brandi Carlile, the OG hit songwriter Valerie Simpson. Wait — I have to take a breath!

Did I mention that Sheryl Crow sat down at the piano and sang a tribute to Fleetwood Mac’s Christine McVie– two songs– “Songbird” and “Say That You Love Me”?

Biggest ovation of the night: for Nancy and Paul Pelosi. Huge standing ovation, and everyone came to their table to tell Nancy she’s their hero and express concern about Paul. But he’s okay. Amazing but true. Thank goodness!

More star names: HER Music aka Gabby Wilson, Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, Deborah Cox, Melissa Etheridge, Miranda Lambert, Denise Rich, Candy Spelling, Nikki Haskell. Somehow, Smokey Robinson and Motown’s Suzanne dePasse made it there after being up all the night before!

A fun moment: when Myles Frost took the stage singing “BIllie Jean,” Tony winner Adrienne Warren — who was so great as Tina Turner on Broadway — ran to the foot of the stage and started dancing up a storm. Very cute.

Swizz Beatz gave a wise and witty toast to the 50th anniversary of hip hop and rap. Cardi B, also very cute and very funny, toasted Atlantic Records’ Julie Greenwald and Craig Kallman on reinventing Atlantic Records. Other guests ranged from new mom Paris Hilton to Charlie Puth. There were hitmakers everywhere, as Clive pointed out, all joined by their love of music. I even met Machine Gun Kelly and Megan Fox. (They were very nice. She is sporting a splint on her hand from an on set accident.)

For many the night proceeded at the strike of midnight to the Polo Lounge at the Beverly Hills Hotel where Deborah Cox led a round table of around 20 people singing “Bohemian Rhapsody” and “Sweet Caroline.” They may still be there!

You can’t say enough about Clive Davis two months shy of 91 years young. His joie de vivre puts everyone to shame. His enthusiasm for the music biz, and for life, should be taught in schools!

Exclusive (photos copyrighted 2023)

Former Speaker of the House and American hero Nancy Pelosi was in fine form last night at the Musicares Person of the Year Motown bash. She and husband Paul were front and center and stayed for most of the incredible show put on by musical director Greg Phillinganes with stars from top to bottom.

Paul Pelosi, considering the horrible attack on him by an intruder with a hammer, looked very jaunty in his tuxedo and black fedora. I asked him how he was doing and he said, “Coming along, but I still have a way to go.” Still, he’s an inspiration to everyone. And Nancy? Now that she’s not in the line of fire every day she looks 10 years younger. Today she’s celebrating National Eat Ice Cream for Breakfast Day!

No one was more excited about the evening than guests of honor Berry Gordy and Smokey Robinson. Friends for 60 plus years, theirs is kind of a love story. At the end of the three hour show, they each spoke, Smokey sang a song he wrote for the occasion, and there were a lot of tears. It was very moving. Think of it: Motown is the only record label ever where fans refer to it as a king of music or song. “It’s a Motown song.” Gordy invented that.

The audience, seated at tables of 10, was massive and many dozens of people were dancing as each group performed. The Temptations are down to just one original member– Otis Williams– and same with Duke Fakir of The Four Tops. These are old men now but they sang their hearts out and the audience loved them. The Tops in particular really rocked the house.

Here’s an exclusive: The Four Tops will get their own Broadway musical. It’s all happening now. Just as the Temps had “Aint Too Proud” and Gordy had his “Motown Musical,” and Michael Jackson has “MJ,” the Tops show will tell their story. Late lead singer Levi Stubbs — one of the giants of all time — will get his due!

It was so much fun backstage to see Otis, Duke, Lionel Richie, and Stevie Wonder all mixing it up. The whole night was like a high school reunion. Pretty cool. Lionel is one of the most earnest and real people you could hope to meet. When we talked, knowing of my friendship with “Soul Man” Sam Moore, Lionel drew a circle of people together, and said, “Sam Moore is the great singer of all time. You don’t know how much he means to me. He influenced my singing.” It was so genuine, everyone was rapt by Lionel’s words!

I had a great talk with Ronald Isley, who was in a gold suit. We reminisced about Wilson Pickett, our mutual old friend who was, let’s say, a character. Ronnie just shook his head talking about the bad old days on the road. (Yes, guns were involved, but it was nothing like today’s hip hop world).

Valerie Simpson wrote two of last night’s Motown classics with her late husband Nik Ashford– “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough,” which she performed, and “Ain’t Nothing Like the Real Thing.” As usual, Simpson was sensational, although I wish someone had mentioned all the hits they wrote for Gordy. Val didn’t care. She told me, “It was just amazing what Berry did at Motown. Every act covered every song until they got it right. That’s what made it so successful!”

There was a lot of Beatles representation last night. Olivia Harrison and Nancy McCartney were front and center. There was a whole table of the Beatles family with Apple Records’ Jonathan Clyde and Jeff Jones, and Ringo Starr’s great advisor, Bruce Grakal. Where were Paul and Ringo? Probably asleep. They’d been out late the previous night at Stella McCartney’s fashion show, dancing up a storm.

Here are some pictures (c2023) from the night:

It was quite a busy Friday in Grammy land.

But first the big news: Adele is actually going to sing on the Grammy telecast Sunday. Adele is doing a show tonight in Las Vegas, and did one last night. I’ve no doubt she’s exhausted. But one more song? My guess is she’ll sing “Easy On Me,” the big hit from her “30” album. The performance may earn her Album of the Year, we’ll see.

Also, I’m told that Stevie Wonder is taping a segment today for airing on Sunday. Last night Stevie was one of the many highlights at the Motown tribute for Musicares along with Lionel Richie, Valerie Simpson, the Four Tops, the Temptations, Rita Wilson, Sheryl Crow, John Legend and many others — Berry Gordy and Smokey Robinson, honorees for the evening, were literally in tears and cheering for act after act the Los Angeles Convention Center with like 3,000 people having dinner in formal attire. Music master Greg Philliganes conducted the band, arranged the music, and deserves a 21 gun salute.

There were many highlights I’ll get into later today, but one was the Isley Brothers. They had one massive hit, “This Old Heart of Mine,” then split and had a huge career with songs like Who’s that Lady and For the Love of You. Ernie Isley, bedecked in a gold suit, kind of levitated during his performance, the audience went wild. He told me backstage, “We haven’t done that song in about a hundred years.”

Among the many cool people in the audience were Tom Hanks, cheering on wife Rita Wilson, Beatles wives Olivia Harrison and Nancy McCartney, star jeweler Loree Rodkin, Barry White’s widow Glodean (she was the voice of Love Unlimited “Walking in the Rain”) star of stars Nikki Haskell, and producer Suzanne DePasse, who has always kept the trains running on time for Berry Gordy. (She’s quite remarkable and needs her own tribute!)

Pictures and video coming later today…and more notes…

What else did I do on Friday? A quick hop over to the ASCAP lumch at the Four Seasons Hotel, where I ran into the great Peter Asher, legendary music exec Dick Wingate, and Jermaine Dupri was the deejay!

This was followed by catching Elvis Costello and the Imposters rehearsing for Clive Davis’s pre-Grammy dinner at the Beverly Hilton. I’m always happy to see Elvis, Steve Nieve, Pete Thomas, Davey Farragher, and guest player Charlie Sexton, who’s also associated with Bob Dylan’s band. Insanely good rocking. And there will be a special guest with them I’ll tell you about tomorrow.