Metallica, ‘Lords of Summer’ vs. Don Henley, ‘The Boys of Summer': Greatest Summer Song Battle

The first round of our battle for the Greatest Summer Song matches Metallica's "Lords of Summer" against Don Henley's similarly named "The Boys of Summer."

We’ve selected 32 of classic rock’s best summertime songs, and paired them off in 16 first-round duels. Over the next five weeks the field will be repeatedly cut in half by your votes, until we arrive at the greatest summer song ever made.

Metallica premiered "Lords of Summer" last March during a concert in Bogota, Colombia. The eight-minute track features plenty of their trademark rhythmic shifts and an extended guitar solo in which James Hetfield and Kirk Hammett briefly harmonize. There is no word on whether or not it will be on their next album, the long-awaited follow-up to 2008's Death Magnetic.

Henley released "The Boys of Summer" on his triple-platinum 1984 album Building the Perfect Beast. Its evocative, black-and-white video perfectly captured the song's nostalgic tone and helped propel the song into Billboard's Top 5. The track, which Henley co-wrote with Mike Campbell from Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, earned the Eagles founder a Grammy Award for Best Male Rock Vocal Performance.

So which one will make it to the next round? That's up to you. Listen to both below and make your call. You can vote once per hour in each of the 16 first-round Greatest Summer Song battles until voting closes on July 27 at 11:59PM ET. Your choice for the Greatest Summer Song of all time will be revealed on Aug. 25, 2015.

Watch Metallica Perform 'Lords of Summer'

Watch Don Henley Perform 'The Boys of Summer'

See Metallica, Don Henley and Other Rockers in the Top 100 Albums of the '80s