When I learned Wednesday that Dick Clark had died at 82, it was with the simultaneous realization that a piece of my childhood had also passed. As a kid, I’d religiously watched American Bandstand, the Top 40 dance show he’d hosted for years.

It’s a tribute to Clark’s tremendous legacy in television that the very same is true for my dad. He tuned in to American Bandstand as a teenager when the show went national in August 1957 and continued watching with the very same fervor I would. Bandstand was originally broadcast weekday afternoons before moving to Saturdays in September 1963, a weekend slot that lasted until production ceased in 1989.

Thinking about those countless Saturday afternoons that I spent watching American Bandstand — mostly in the ’80s — and occasionally dancing along, several memories stand out.

1982: My first exposure to The Human League’s “Don’t You Want Me.” I’ve got Dick Clark’s long-running show to thank for turning me on to this (now) New Wave classic. Weirdly though, I never did buy the 45.

1983: My dad was watching with me when OXO’s “Whirly Girl” was the subject of the show’s Rate-A-Record segment. We loved the song, though I don’t recall what score it received that afternoon. I imagine “Whirly Girl” must have done fairly well, since the Miami, Florida band appeared on a later episode to perform it. Still, “Whirly Girl” spun out at #28 on the Billboard Hot 100 — 29 years ago this very week, in fact.

A true one-hit wonder, OXO’s “Whirly Girl” still offers one of my favorite ever endings in pop music.

1984: I watched when Madonna performed “Holiday” in January and uttered what her infamous response to Clark’s question of what her hopes and dreams were for the year and beyond: “I want to rule the world.”

Yesterday, Madonna issued this statement: “Even though I told him in 1984 that I wanted to rule the world, it’s Dick Clark who ruled the world. He loved what he did and his energy and enthusiasm were boundless. A great man. I bow to his memory and everything he did with his life.”

1987: The Beastie Boys’ performance of “(You Gotta) Fight For Your Right (To Party!)” was memorable not so much for their shambolic onstage antics (with scantily clad female in tow), but because I so clearly recall Dick Clark’s intro to the segment. Holding up the Beasties’ album License To Ill, he opened the gatefold to reveal the crashed part of the airplane on the back cover.

The clip below doesn’t include that moment, but watch through to Clark’s interview segment and you’ll see a master at work. The Beastie Boys didn’t exactly respect the showcase they’d been given or the parameters of appearing on American Bandstand, but Clark, ever the congenial host, played along and never missed a beat.

Those are just four personal American Bandstand memories quickly unpacked from the reaches of my mind, but there are many, many more.

Of course, American Bandstand wasn’t Dick Clark’s only contribution to the airwaves, however iconic. Try to imagine New Year celebrations without Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve as perennial companion. Or days spent home sick from school sans Pyramid, the game show Clark hosted from its start in 1973. That same year, he launched the American Music Awards, created as a younger, hipper competitor to the established, somewhat staid Grammys. Clark made us laugh too, hosting TV’s Bloopers & Practical Jokes with Ed McMahon. And he produced countless series and specials, from the Golden Globes to So You Think You Can Dance.

“Mr. Television” is the nickname given to another broadcasting legend, the late Milton Berle, who was there for the medium’s birth. But Dick Clark also logged countless hours of tube time, both as host and producer. For a stretch in the 1980s, he even had a regular show on all three major networks. Beginning with American Bandstand and moving beyond, Clark’s decades-long television legacy stands larger than Berle’s, leaving behind an indelible mark on pop culture.

In that respect, America’s Oldest Teenager will still manage to outlive us all.