Carly Simon — who celebrates her birthday June 25th — had a lot of success recording for Clive Davis on Arista Records, but it wasn’t always easy.

She released six albums there, starting with a smash comeback in “Coming Around Again,” in 1986. In 1990, Simon won the Oscar for Best Song, from “Working Girl,” with “Let the River Run.”

But the two type A personalities had to negotiate those successes. Luckily, they’d known each other 20 years earlier, and Clive was an ardent fan. “Coming Around Again” followed Simon’s 15 years at Elektra and Warner Bros. Records that included hits like “You’re So Vain,” “Anticipation,” “You Belong to Me,” and “Jessie.”

Like most Clive Davis recording artists, Carly’s career still rides high. Her first single in 18 years — called “Howl” — has more than 100,000 views on YouTube since its release last week. A new album is set for August.

Carly writes on Instagram:

“Clive Davis was the gentlest, prickliest, most lovable, most ferocious pussycat around. He made me madder than anyone I ever knew, but in the end the things I got so indignant about were transformed into much better records. With Clive, the successes and big awards were worth all that fruitful, back-and-forth. I can still picture him in his office, and his face, his eyes closed, his cupid-bow lips, his arms tightly crossed, deciding whether you and your songs were destined for heaven, hell, or someplace in-between.

“Clive, you believed in music with your whole being. You had the rare gift of hearing not just what an artist was, but what they could become. Somehow, always, you made the impossible feel inevitable. I feel so lucky to have known you, lucky to have worked with you, and lucky, like so many, to have been on the receiving end of your clairvoyant ear.”

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Lizzo was not so long ago the biggest music star.

She sold millions of records, and ruled the charts. She played her flute on “Saturday Night Live.” Everyone was in love with her.

Lizzo won four Grammy Awards in 2023, including Record of the Year. Her career should have been assured.

But fame is fleeting. And now Lizzo is having serious problems.

Her perfectly good album, called “Bitch,” sold just 585 copies in its this week. Of those, 210 were downloads or CDs. This was the third week of release.

Total sales, including streaming, over the last three weeks come to 7,500.

Lizzo was banking on “Bitch” being a comeback after lawsuits and scandals over weight-shaming dancers and being otherwise unpleasant to everyone around her. When her congenial facade was broken, fans just walked away.

Arrogance plays a big part here. And hubris. Instead of making amends with the public through charitable work and other signs that she was mistreated, Lizzo took the offensive. Singing “Bitch” is not the way to wiggle your way back into anyone’s hearts.

The sad part is, the songs on the album are not bad. If she’d had a real producer and A&R person who listened to, this might have gone differently.

Listen, time heals all wounds, but you have use a bandaid. She’s learning that the hard way.

I’m late to this story.

But I’m very surprised that Oprah Winfrey is declaring negative things about Whitney Houston.

Oprah made the remarks in her speech at Cannes Lion — the advertising festival in Cannes that has nothing to do with the Cannes Film Festival.

Winfrey told the crowd that Whitney was high on drugs when she fell off the stage at Oprah’s TV show in 2009.

This has set off wild arguing, with Whitney’s sister-in-law and manager, Pat Houston, saying Oprah is lying. Or perhaps, misremembering for effect.

More importantly, I can tell you definitively and exclusively that this is a far different story than Oprah told in 2021.

Oprah was the guest of the now late and beloved Clive Davis during a Zoom call to raise money for the Grammy Museum. I watched it live and reported on it in real time.

Clive had brought Whitney to the Oprah show for the taping. He was with her, as were several of her close associates.

Gossips had always surmised that the cause of Whitney’s fall was drugs.

But on May 15, 2021, Oprah agreed with Clive, on video, live, that was not the case.

Watching the live feed, I wrote: “It was not drugs,” Oprah said, and Clive agreed. She slipped, but it unnerved Whitney so that she took a break to regroup. During the break Oprah begged the audience to keep it a secret.

I continued: “To this day I’ve never read or heard anyone say it,” said Oprah. Whitney, by the way, returned to the stage and got a standing ovation. She triumphed over the accident.

So what the heck is going on here? Oprah knows her Cannes Lion statement is not true. I know where the video is, and will produce it if necessary. But every person who was on that Zoom heard it, too. She wasn’t saying it to appease Clive. They’d obviously discussed this in advance. There was no reason to make it up in 2021. And there’s no reason to lie about it now except to make headlines.

I want to say that I was close enough to Whitney and Clive during her entire career. Clive Davis did everything in his power to help Whitney. He guided her, and helped with rehab. For a long time, I had the number of Whitney’s drug counselor — provided by Clive — in my Blackberry. He really was like a father to her. But you can’t make an addict stop unless they want to do it.

As for Oprah, her reputation has mutated since she left her talk show. Her participation in showcasing the “Leaving Neverland” documentary on HBO was a fiasco. Getting involved with Prince Harry and Meghan Markle also dimmed her legacy. She’s done herself no favors by exploiting Whitney Houston in Cannes just to get headlines.

I’m very disappointed.

You can see Whitney’s performance below. She looked great at the time, and was actually ‘clean.’ This was far different than her nadir, in 2001, when she seemed like she might perish on stage at Michael Jackson’s 30th anniversary concert. In the video, she looks beautiful and her voice is outstanding.