Photo by -RobW- via Flickr Creative Commons

New Year's Eve is the champagne of holidays — potentially explosive, highly pressurized, and if done incorrectly, wrought with the worst headaches imaginable. From Kermit to Casablanca, here are five pop culture benchmarks in honor of the bubbly tempest. Welcome to 2013.

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TV pioneer Dick Clark at the 37th Annual Daytime Emmy Awards. Dick Clark died of a heart attack on Wednesday April 18, 2012.

Tony Pierce / KPCC

Reporters and fans gather around Dick Clark's star on Vine near Sunset Blvd.

AP Photo

Disc jockey television personality Dick Clark looks over some papers during an American Bandstand show in Philadelphia in this undated photo. (AP Photo)

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KISS' Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley with Dick Clark at a taping of 'American Bandstand's 50th....A Celebration' at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium, Pasadena, Ca. Friday, April 19, 2002.

DAMIAN DOVARGANES

Entertainer Milton Berle, once known as "Mr. Television," left, jokes with Emmy Awards' executive producer Dick Clark during a rehersal of the show at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium, Saturday, Sept. 7, 1996, in Pasadena, Calif.. The 48th annual Emmy Awards show takes place Sunday, Sept. 8. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

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Dick Clark and Cher at the taping of 'American Bandstand's 50th...A Celebration' at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium in Pasadena, Ca. Saturday, April 20, 2002.

Anonymous

FILE - In this Feb. 3, 1959 file photo, Dick Clark selects a record in his station library in Philadelphia. Clark, the television host who helped bring rock `n' roll into the mainstream on "American Bandstand," died Wednesday, April 18, 2012 of a heart attack. He was 82. (AP Photo/File)

Kevin Winter/Getty Images

Dick Clark, Stevie Wonder and Babyface at the taping of 'American Bandstand's 50th...A Celebration' at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium in Pasadena, Ca. Saturday, April 20, 2002

Kevin Winter/Getty Images

Michael Jackson arrives at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium in Pasadena, Ca. to tape his performance for Dick Clark's 'American Bandstand's 50th...A Celebration', Saturday, April 20, 2002

Tony Pierce / KPCC

Flowers lay on Dick Clark's star on Vine near Hollywood Blvd.

Kevin Winter/Getty Images

Dick Clark and Little Richard at the taping of 'American Bandstand's 50th...A Celebration' at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium in Pasadena, Ca. Sunday, April 21, 2002.

We've included audio of KPCC's Steve Julian interviewing Dion Dimucci of "Dion and the Belmonts" fame about working with Dick Clark in "American Bandstand."

Dick Clark has died at 82 following a "massive heart attack," said his spokesman Paul Shefrin in a statement on Wednesday, according to ABC News and TMZ. Shefrin said the entertainment pioneer died at Saint John's hospital in Santa Monica, where he had gone the day before for an outpatient procedure.

The television host, producer and pop music messenger -- whose longtime boyish looks earned him the nickname the "world's oldest teenager" --  is most famous for his contributions to American Bandstand and his trademark Rockin' New Year's Eve broadcasts.

Clark's storied entertainment career began in the mailroom of his local radio station and grew to include game shows, award shows and specials. A long-time entertainment fixture, Clark suffered a stroke in 2004 that left him struggling to speak and partially paralyzed.

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