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Weekend Rock Question: What Is the Greatest Opening Act in Rock History?

Cast your vote in our weekly poll

The Who, Van Halen and Motley Crue
Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images; Fin Costello/Redferns/Getty Images; Chris Walter/WireImage
July 6, 2012 3:00 PM ET

We're at the height of the summer touring season, and arenas and amphitheaters are full of shows featuring great opening acts. Cheap Trick is opening up for Aerosmith, Alice Cooper is opening for Iron Maiden and later this year Patti Smith will open for Neil Young & Crazy Horse. 

Our question for you: What is the greatest double bill in rock history? You can go back 45 years and vote for the Who opening for Herman's Hermits, step into 1978 with Van Halen on the undercard for Black Sabbath or five years after that with Motley Crue opening for Ozzy Osbourne. Feel free to step away from rock and vote for Britney Spears supporting N'Sync in 1999, or even this year's Justin Bieber/Carly Rae Jepsen tour. Just please only vote for one tour.

You can vote here in the comments, on facebook.com/rollingstone or on Twitter using the #weekend rock hashtag.

To read the new issue of Rolling Stone online, plus the entire RS archive: Click Here

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“1999”

Prince | 1982

“I don’t consider myself a great poet,” Prince told Rolling Stone. “I just know I’m here to say what’s on my mind.” In the case of the apocalyptic party anthem “1999,” he was worried about then-president Ronald Reagan’s foreign policies. The song’s melody is based on a riff borrowed from the Mamas and Papas’ “Monday, Monday,” and Prince originally envisioned the first verse with three-part harmony but later split the vocals between himself and members of the Revolution. Because Warner Bros., with whom Prince was locked in a contractual battle, owned the original’s masters, Prince rerecorded the song and appropriately released that version in 1999.

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