-Thank you for being here.
I love that you're here.
Welcome back to the show.
Do you remember the first time we met?
-I do. I remember.
This is totally impromptu.
-Yes. -We were in Minetta Tavern.
-That's correct. -And you were sitting with
your parents at a nearby table. -Yeah.
I was with my mom and my dad.
And my mom goes, "Oh, my God, that's Clive Davis."
[ Laughter ]
"Play it cool, Mom. We're in New York City.
We're at Minetta Tavern, a great restaurant."
I go, "I got to go over and say hi to him. It's Clive Davis."
And so I walked over to you,
and you were with a group of people at your table.
It was loud and the music was on.
People were talking, and I go, "Clive, nice to meet you.
I'm Jimmy Fallon."
And you go...
And so, I thought you wanted me to kiss you on the cheek
because -- -[ Laughter ]
I thought this was like "The Godfather," kiss the ring.
So, I go...
So I leaned in and I kissed you on the cheek.
[ Laughter ] [ Sad tuba ]
And you go -- You go, "I'm sorry, who are you?"
[ Laughter ]
And I go, "I'm so sorry."
And then I sat back at my table
and we just made eye contact the whole night
'cause I was facing you.
So thank you for putting up with me and coming back.
I appreciate you being here. I love you.
And I'm so happy I got to kiss you on the cheek and I'm sorry.
[ Applause ]
Legend.
Can we talk about this, by the way?
You just got honored by the National Portrait Gallery.
Look at this.
[ Cheers and applause ]
David Hockney.
-David Hockney did the portrait, yes.
One of the bigger thrills of my life.
-I mean, I love David Hockney.
How did you end up working with David Hockney?
-Well, when I got word that I was going to be inducted,
which is a thrill unto itself in the National Portrait Gallery --
I know David for years.
He's a friend. I've been to his studio.
He comes to my Grammy party that I throw
the night before the Grammys every year.
-Biggest party of the year.
-And I just called him, and I said, "David, I'm getting
one of the biggest lifetime achievements
I could possibly get.
I'm going to be inducted into the National Portrait Gallery.
Would you do my portrait?"
I figured, you know, I got to take that shot.
-Wow. -And he said, "You know
I don't do portraits from photos.
And I'm in Normandy, France."
So I said, "I'll be there."
He said, "You'll come for three, four days."
I said, "David, I'll come for three or four days."
And I did, and he painted it.
-He's the greatest.
[ Applause ]
And now you're in the gallery forever.
-Now I'm in the gallery. It was such a thrill.
The induction took place a week ago,
with Serena and Venus Williams and Ava DuVernay and Dr. Fauci.
it was a wonderful, wonderful honor.
-You've done so many cool things in your life.
They call you the man with the golden ear.
You worked with Springsteen, Aretha Franklin,
obviously Whitney Houston, which we're going to get into.
You're an executive producer on the new film,
"I Wanna Dance with Somebody."
When you do this, number one, is it hard to do,
when you think about she's not with us anymore?
And number two, why is it important
that you're involved with this?
-Well, there had been a documentary
and there had been a television movie.
Both were wanting.
Both did not capture her soul, her dignity.
They didn't capture everything
everybody wants to know about her.
And most importantly, they didn't capture the music.
They didn't capture those great songs.
They didn't capture that voice that defined a generation
that was indeed -- She's the greatest contemporary --
-[ Cheers and applause ] -Absolutely.
-And so, this movie does all that authentically, honestly,
and the music soars.
-Stanley Tucci plays you.
Do you have any notes for Stanley?
-You know, I was very impressed.
Before we met, he had read my autobiography.
He had seen my documentary on Netflix.
And then we did two Zooms.
And I flew up to Boston to meet him person-to-person.
-Yeah. -It's a funny experience.
But when I saw the film, I went with him,
and I felt he is wonderful.
-Yeah. You go, "That's me."
And do you remember when you first went into --
It was here in New York City where you saw Whitney
and discovered Whitney.
Do you remember where it was or what she was singing?
-I remember it vividly.
It was at a club called Sweetwater's on the West Side.
She was background singing for her mother.
She stepped to the microphone.
She did two songs.
One was "Home" from "The Wiz."
And then, startlingly to me, she did "The Greatest Love of All."
That, Jimmy, was the song I had personally commissioned
eight years earlier for the movie
on the life of Muhammad Ali, "The Greatest."
And George Benson had recorded it.
It was a top 10 R&B record.
But coming to the microphone was this 19-year-old,
stunningly beautiful singer.
And from the beginning of that song, she was finding
more meaning in that song
than even the composers, Michael Masser and Linda Creed,
could have thought were in that song.
[ Applause ]
-She just had it. She just had it in her.
I also -- and tell me if this is true.
If it's not, I'll cut it out of the show.
But on "I Will Always Love You," the beginning,
the a capella part, was your call.
You said, "Leave this in. I think you should do that"
and everyone said, "No, don't start a capella."
-Alright. The facts are that Kevin Costner suggested it
to Whitney, David Foster, and me.
We all agreed that that would be
a great song for that airplane scene.
And David sent me the -- Right after Whitney sang it,
he sent me rough mix, and it did have the a capella,
and it was raw and was haunting and so emotionally impactful.
He said, "Look, don't get demo-itis," they call it.
"I'm working on it. I'm going to be adding instruments."
So, days passed, two weeks passed.
Warner Bros. studio is calling me.
We've got to come with a single. The movie is about to open.
I call David. "Give me your last shot."
And to me, it came off a little slick
with the added instrumentation.
So, when Warners called and I had to make that decision,
with the a capella intro, with the raw instrumentation,
that became the single.
-And so you released that and it came out.
[ Applause ]
And I don't think anyone was ready for that.
If it came on your radio, you're like, "What is this?"
-Believe me, David was appalled.
But as soon as it came on the radio, he got more calls
than he ever received in his life.
The single is the best-selling single of all time to this day.
[ Cheers and applause ]
-The secrets behind the song.
I'm so happy you did that.
I want to show everyone a clip.
Here's a scene from "I Wanna Dance with Somebody."
Take a look at this.
-♪ Find your strength in love ♪
[ Cheers and applause ]
♪♪
[ Cheers and applause continue ]
-Okay. Just okay.
I think I might have just heard
the greatest voice of her generation.
-That's what I'm talking about.
He did a good job.
That's Clive Davis, everybody.
"I Wanna Dance with Somebody" is in theaters
everywhere December 23rd.