Don Davis (record producer)

Donald Davis (October 25, 1938 – June 5, 2014) was an American record producer, songwriter and guitarist who combined a career in music with one in banking.

[1] Born in Detroit, he started playing music in the mid-1950s and after leaving Central High School formed his own jazz group, the Don Davis Trio, before becoming a session musician.

In 1971, he bought one of Detroit's premier recording studios, United Sound,[9][10] used by a host of musicians including George Clinton, Aretha Franklin, The Dramatics, The Dells, Carla Thomas, Michael Henderson, David Ruffin and Johnnie Taylor.

[12] In 1975, Davis started and headed the RCA-distributed Detroit-based record label, Tortoise International[13] which included artists, First Fire, The Rockets, the 1978 comeback album by The Skyliners, as well as the 1978 Dan Schafer version of the 1960s re-make "Baby Now That I've Found You" which was re-released in 2012 on the CD Perhaps..the Very Best of Dan Schafer.

He lived in West Bloomfield Township, north of Detroit, and died after a short illness in June 2014, aged 75.