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By John Serba | jserba@mlive.com

Alice Cooper graduated high school 51 years ago. But that hasn't stopped him from celebrating the last day of school for the last 45 years: in 1972, the Detroit-born rock 'n' roll icon released "School's Out," an album whose title track has become a timeless classic. It's also no stretch to call it one of the greatest summer songs of all time.

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The song's origin

Cooper - real name Vincent Furnier, if you're a stickler for propriety - told Rolling Stone that "The few minutes waiting for that final school bell to ring are so intense that when it happens, it's almost orgasmic." So he captured that feeling in three minutes of pure pop-rock glee, penning a sticky anthem atop Glen Buxton's unforgettable guitar lick. The song is rooted in vintage '50s rock, but run through the Alice Cooper Band's noisy and raw Detroit garage-rock sensibilities.

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The track became a much-needed hit for the Coop, whose career as a national artist began two years previous with 1970 hit "I'm Eighteen." "School's Out" put him in a bright international spotlight, charting in nine countries, and providing a springboard for a string of hits from the album and its follow-up, 1973's quintessential "Billion Dollar Babies."

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The rest is history

"School's Out" is now a pop-cultural touchstone. Filmmaker Richard Linklater featured the song in his cinema classic "Dazed and Confused," set on the last day of school in 1975.

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Of course, it takes "The Simpsons" to truly induct a song into pop culture Valhalla. Bart once dreamed of destroying Springfield Elementary with a wrecking ball as Cooper's anthem played.

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Perhaps most famously - or infamously, because pretty much anything Cooper does begs for infamy - the rocker performed the song with monsters on a particularly wonderful 1978 episode of "The Muppet Show."

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And here's where we need to mention that every performance of "School's Out" isn't necessarily awesome. High school musical TV series "Glee" featured the song, and Cooper sang it with "American Idol" contestants in 2010 - two incidents that surely put some significant coins in the rocker's bank account.

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A set list staple

It's safe to assume Cooper has played "School's Out" at every live show for the last four-and-a-half decades. According to setlist.fm, he's played it at least 2,500 times, more than any other song in his repertoire.

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Cooper will return to Metro Detroit - as he frequently does - on his 2017 tour with Deep Purple. The show will take place Sept. 3 at DTE Energy Music Theatre in Clarkston. Edgar Winter will be the opening act.

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