Prince and Saturday Night Live have known each other for a long time. His first appearance was on February 21, 1981, serving as the musical guest. In the 35 years that have passed, Prince became permanently embedded in our collective unconscious. The world has had a purple hue since the artist’s untimely death and Saturday Night Live paid tribute with a heartfelt and heartbreaking retrospective.

“Goodnight, Sweet Prince” (a reference to Horatio’s final goodbye to Hamlet, fitting for the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death) was an hour and half of musical performance and all things Prince from the last 35 years of SNL. Jimmy Fallon opened the show, reminding us all, “There was always something different about a Prince performance. It was special. It was Prince.” Fallon was working hard to hold it together while he talked about Prince’s importance and significance. “Prince has never not been cool,” he said. There was even a joke, even if it’s a sad one: “He owned the color purple.”

The first clip was that first performance from 1981. Prince was 22 years old, performing “Partyup” from Dirty Mind. Looking back, there is no way we could have known then the impact he would have, but watching it now, it is all there and it runs through all of the clips: the energy, the charisma, the presence.