National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences

The Recording Academy, also known as The National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences (NARAS), is a U.S. organization of musicians, producers, recording engineers and other recording professionals dedicated to improving the quality of life and cultural condition for music and its makers. The Recording Academy is headquartered in Santa Monica. Neil Portnow is the current president of The Academy.

The Recording Academy, which began in 1957, is known for its Grammy Awards. In 1997, the Recording Academy launched The Latin Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences, Inc., which produces the Latin GRAMMY Awards. Michael Greene was the founder and the first President of the Latin Grammys.

History

The origin of the Academy dates back to the beginning of the 1950s Hollywood Walk of Fame project. The Hollywood Chamber of Commerce asked the help of major recording industry executives in compiling a list of people in the music business who should be honored by Walk of Fame stars. The music committee, made up of these executives, compiled a list, but as they worked, they realized there were many more talented industry people who would not qualify to be recognized with a Hollywood Boulevard bronze star. The founding committee members included Jesse Kaye, MGM Records; Lloyd Dunn and Richard Jones, Capitol Records; Sonny Burke and Milt Gabler, Decca Records; Dennis Farnon, RCA Records; and Axel Stordahl, Paul Weston, and Doris Day from Columbia Records. This was the start of the Academy and also of the GRAMMY Awards.

John Legend

John Roger Stephens (born December 28, 1978), better known by his stage name John Legend, is an American singer, songwriter and actor. He has won nine Grammy Awards, one Golden Globe, and one Academy Award. In 2007, Legend received the Hal David Starlight Award from the Songwriters Hall of Fame.

Prior to the release of Legend's debut album, his career gained momentum through a series of successful collaborations with multiple established artists. He sang in Magnetic Man's "Getting Nowhere," Kanye West's "All of the Lights", on Slum Village's "Selfish", and Dilated Peoples' "This Way". Other artists included Jay Z's "Encore", and he sang backing vocals on Alicia Keys' 2003 song "You Don't Know My Name", the Kanye West remix of Britney Spears' "Me Against the Music", and Fort Minor's "High Road". Legend played piano on Lauryn Hill's "Everything Is Everything". He has gained chart topping hits from his solo work as well, including the Billboard Hot 100 number-one single, "All of Me". He won the Academy Award for Best Original Song in 2015 for writing the song "Glory" from the film Selma.

Save Room

"Save Room" is a song by American recording artist John Legend, taken from his second album, Once Again (2006). A joyful love song, it was written by Legend along with will.i.am, Jessyca Wilson, Buddy Buie, and James B. Cobb, Jr. and built along a sample of Gábor Szabó's version of the Classics IV hit "Stormy" which was brought in by frequent collaborator Kanye West. Production was helmed by both Legend and will.i.am.

Released as the album's first single, "Save Room" became a top ten hit in Italy and the Netherlands while reaching the top twenty in the Flemish region of Belgium and on Billboard's US Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart. In the United Kingdom, the single received a digital only release and chart rules at that time prevented it from charting. A critical success, the song was also nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance.

The song's accompanying music video, directed by Bryan Barber, was shot in various locations in New York City and features Legend in relations with several different women. He is seen trying to stay in relationships with the women but having trouble doing so. "Save Room" later appeared in films such as Nancy Meyers's It's Complicated (2009) and Glenn Ficarra and John Requa's Crazy, Stupid, Love (2011).

Academy

An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary education or higher learning, research, or honorary membership. The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy, founded approximately 385 BC at Akademia, a sanctuary of Athena, the goddess of wisdom and skill, north of Athens, Greece.

The original Academy

Before Akademia was a school, and even before Cimon enclosed its precincts with a wall, it contained a sacred grove of olive trees dedicated to Athena, the goddess of wisdom, outside the city walls of ancient Athens. The archaic name for the site was Hekademia, which by classical times evolved into Akademia and was explained, at least as early as the beginning of the 6th century BC, by linking it to an Athenian hero, a legendary "Akademos". The site of Akademia was sacred to Athena and other immortals.

Plato's immediate successors as "scholarch" of Akademia were Speusippus (347–339 BC), Xenocrates (339–314 BC), Polemon (314–269 BC), Crates (ca. 269–266 BC), and Arcesilaus (ca. 266–240 BC). Later scholarchs include Lacydes of Cyrene, Carneades, Clitomachus, and Philo of Larissa ("the last undisputed head of the Academy"). Other notable members of Akademia include Aristotle, Heraclides Ponticus, Eudoxus of Cnidus, Philip of Opus, Crantor, and Antiochus of Ascalon.

Clive Davis

Clive Jay Davis (born April 4, 1932) is an American record producer, A&R executive and music industry executive. He has won five Grammy Awards and is a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a non-performer.

From 1967 to 1973, Davis was the president of Columbia Records. He was the founder and president of Arista Records from 1975 through 2000 until founding J Records. From 2002 until April 2008, Davis was the chairman and CEO of the RCA Music Group (which included RCA Records, J Records and Arista Records), chairman and CEO of J Records, and chairman and CEO of BMG North America. Currently Davis is the chief creative officer of Sony Music Entertainment. He currently plays a part in the careers of TLC, Aretha Franklin, Rod Stewart, Alicia Keys, Barry Manilow, Christina Aguilera, Carlos Santana, Kelly Clarkson, Leona Lewis and Jennifer Hudson. Davis is also credited with bringing Whitney Houston and Barry Manilow to prominence.

Early life and education

Davis was born in Brooklyn, New York City, New York, to a Jewish family, the son of Herman and Florence Davis. His father was an electrician and salesman. Davis was raised in the middle-class neighborhood of Crown Heights, Brooklyn.