For the Sam Cooke's guitarist, see Clifton White
Cliff White began his music business career in the 1960s as salesman at London's original HMV store, briefly interrupted by a tour of Germany in early '66 as singer in a UK beat group. For most of the '70s he wrote regularly for NME and Black Music magazine, latterly also Black Echoes and Smash Hits. During the '80s he was product manager for key reissue company Charly Records, onto a year with Demon Records. Meanwhile he spearheaded a prolonged campaign of James Brown reissues for PolyGram/Universal and was awarded a GRAMMY in January 1993 for his contribution to the JB Star Time box set. From the early '90s until 2003 he was with the repertoire research division of the MCPS-PRS Alliance, then a label manager for Proper Music Distribution until 2009.