"This Is It" is a song by American musician

Kenny Loggins Kenneth Clark "Kenny" Loggins (born January 7, 1948) is an American singer, songwriter, and guitarist. His early songs were recorded with the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band in 1970, which led to seven albums recorded with Jim Messina (musician), Jim Mess ...

. It was released in 1979 as the lead single from his 1979 album ''

Keep the Fire ''Keep the Fire'' is the third studio album by American singer-songwriter Kenny Loggins, released in 1979. It is perhaps best known for the hit single " This Is It". The song was co-written by Michael McDonald, who also performed on the track. M ...

''. It reached number 11 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 and number 17 on the

Adult Contemporary Adult contemporary music (AC) is a form of radio-played popular music, ranging from 1960s vocal and 1970s soft rock music to predominantly ballad-heavy music of the 1980s to the present day, with varying degrees of easy listening, pop, soul ...

chart. "This Is It" was also successful on the

Hot Soul Singles The Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart ranks the most popular R&B and hip hop songs in the United States and is published weekly by ''Billboard''. Rankings are based on a measure of radio airplay, sales data, and streaming activity. The chart had 100 po ...

chart, reaching number 19; it was one of two entries on this chart. The song features additional vocals by Michael McDonald, who co-wrote the song with Loggins. The song won a

Grammy Award The Grammy Awards, stylized as GRAMMY, and often referred to as The Grammys, are awards presented by The Recording Academy of the United States to recognize outstanding achievements in music. They are regarded by many as the most prestigious ...

1981 Events January * January 1 ** Greece enters the European Economic Community, predecessor of the European Union. ** Palau becomes a self-governing territory. * January 6 – A funeral service is held in West Germany for Nazi Grand Admiral ...

for

Best Male Pop Vocal Performance The Grammy Award for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance was a Grammy Award recognizing superior vocal performance by a male in the pop category, the first of which was presented in 1959. It was discontinued after the 2011 Grammy season. The award wen ...

NBC Sports NBC Sports is an American programming division for NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, that is responsible for sports broadcasts on their broadcast network NBC, the Cable television, cable channels NBC owns, and on Peacock (streaming service) ...

used the song as theme music for its coverage of the

NCAA men's basketball tournament The NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament, branded as March Madness, or The Big Dance, is a single-elimination tournament played in the United States to determine the men's college basketball national champion of the NCAA Division I, Di ...

in 1980 and 1981.

WPVI-TV WPVI-TV (channel 6) is a television station in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Owned and operated by the ABC television network through its ABC Owned Television Stations division, the station maintains studios on City Avenue in t ...

Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

had a local weekend program of the same name and had the song as its theme throughout the 1980s.

Background and writing

At one point in the song's evolution, its melody was underway, but the lyrics were incomplete. Loggins moved it forward after a visit to his ailing father, who had undergone a series of surgeries for vascular problems stemming from small strokes and was discouraged at the prospect of another. His perspective on the lyrics then changed: I've got it,' I announced to Michael, "it's not a love song. It's a life song."

Chart performance

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

References

External links

* 1979 songs 1979 singles Kenny Loggins songs Songs written by Kenny Loggins Songs written by Michael McDonald (musician) Columbia Records singles Grammy Award for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance Song recordings produced by Tom Dowd {{1970s-rock-song-stub