Hands on, hands off

www.calendarlive.com/music/cl-ca-davis14...ll=cl-music-features

Joplin, Manilow, Alicia Keys, Kelly Clarkson. Clive Davis still rocks the pop world, knowing when to handpick a song -- and when to step aside.

CLIVE DAVIS, whose discoveries stretch from Janis Joplin to Alicia Keys, is sitting in his favorite bungalow at the Beverly Hills Hotel, amused to hear what a rival record company chief once said privately about the "American Idol" phenomenon that Davis helps propel: "If 'American Idol' really is the future of the record business, I don't want to be part of this business anymore."

Davis, whose labels release the "Idol" CDs, is too diplomatic to take a pot shot at the executive, who's been fired since that remark two years ago