Jerry "The Iceman" Butler Credits Dick Clark For Helping His Rise To Fame

CHICAGO (CBS) -- Among the many fans mourning the death of TV host Dick Clark on Wednesday was local politician and soul singer Jerry "The Iceman" Butler.

Clark died Wednesday morning at the age of 82, after suffering a massive heart attack.

Butler, who was the original lead singer of the R&B group The Impressions, said his first record, "For Your Precious Love," became a national hit because of Clark and his iconic show "American Bandstand."

"For Your Precious Love was the first song that I recorded, and it was because of Dick Clark that it became a national hit," Butler said.

LISTEN: WBBM Newsradio's John Cody reports

Butler, now a Cook County Commissioner, said Clark was initially reluctant to get behind the song for American Bandstand.

"It was a ballad and his was a dance show, and he wasn't sure the kid would go to dance with it. But he put it on anyway, and they did dance with it, and that took the recording to another level," he said.

Butler said Clark didn't change the direction of American Culture, but he did amplify it. He said Clark kept up with artists who were on the front of cultural change.

"I think he amplified what was happening," Butler said. "The musicians and the songwriters are always at the forefront of change, and the people who played the music, who exposed the music, really just kind of enhanced the world's knowledge of what was going on in the minds of the performers."

He also said Clark was a unifying influence in the music industry, which was still segregated in the 1950s, when American Bandstand began.

"He was a close friend, a gentleman, and one who was loved by all the world," Butler said. "They called him the (world's) oldest teenager, and he was just a beautiful person at heart, and I guess the way he looked for years was just a tribute to his good genes, I would imagine."