Dick Clark Died at 82
 

Just got a breaking news alert on my phone. :(

They just interrupted the show I'm watching to report it. RIP :(

RIP! I may not have been around for American Bandstand, but I always loved tuning into Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve!

New Year's Eve will NEVER be the same. :(

Friends from the heart, forever! Go in peace to join the mystic circle.
Brother Dick Clark, Delta Kappa Epsilon, Syracuse University.

:(

After all his poor body has been through, I hope he's resting in peace. Dick Clark will always be an American Icon.

America definitely lost a rock n roll icon today. While he wasn't a musician he pretty much was the guy who introduced rock music to the masses via American Bandstand.


I thought he retired from the NYE show some years back and Carson Daley or someone similar has been hosting.

Ryan Seacrest has been the main host but Dick Clark has made an appearance every year since the one after his stroke.

I do remember Band Stand. It was a "must see" TV show and I was sad when it ended. It wasn't just about music, it was about fashion and dance trends and the whole package of the show. I remember swooning over Andy Gibb on Band Stand. I also enjoyed the $10,000 Pyramid (later the $100,000 pyramid), which Clark hosted. Perhaps it was a different time, but I don't remember him being involved in any scandals or scuttlebutt either. He always seemed like a class act.

RIP Dick Clark and thank you for entertaining us for so long.

First Mike Wallace and now Dick Clark. This week f'ing sucks. :( :( :(

Definitely a tough week to be a million years old.

I so remember being in junior high and then high school and watching Bandstand on Friday afternoons with my cousins. For those of us from small midwestern towns, Dick Clark brought the latest music to us. We learned the twist, the jerk, the locomotion, and so many other dances from watching the kids. We were able to see all the latest artists--Chubby Checker, the Supremes, the Seekers, the Mamas and Papas, Sonny and Cher, the Beach Boys, Aretha Franklin--all performing their latest hits. Black and white couples danced side by side--all a few years before the big Civil Rights clashes of the late 1960s. We also learned the latest clothing styles and hairdos--we watched pegged pants evolve into bell bottoms and pencil skirts become minis. Ducktails became Beatle cuts and short hair with bangs become longer flipped-up hair and eventually long hair parted in the middle. Suede bucks became penny loafers and pointed-toe flats became white go-go boots and then platform heels. Bandstand was a great social equalizer of its time--we were just all teenagers who loved music and loved to dance--period.

All of these memories have made me smile in spite of the loss of Dick Clark. He was a social and class reformer whether he realized it or not, and those of us from that era will always be grateful for his influence. And--how about his famous "rate that song" segment? These words will forever define those wonderful songs--"It has a good beat and I can dance to it!" What else is there?

A cousin of mine was lucky enough to secure an internship with Dick Clark Productions and got to interact with Dick Clark several times. She had nothing but wonderful things to say about him. May he rest in peace.