“This Is It” by Kenny Loggins

"This Is It" was the lead single from Kenny Loggins' 1979 album Keep the Fire, and it's a two-man job: Loggins wrote it with Michael McDonald, who shares the lead vocal credit, sings backup and plays piano. Tom Dowd produced, and the band behind them runs smooth and tight, with Loggins and Mike Hamilton on guitars, George Hawkins Jr. on bass, Tris Imboden on drums, Brian Mann on keyboards and Paulinho da Costa on percussion.

It climbed to number 11 on the Hot 100, crossed over as far as number 19 on the Hot Soul Singles chart, and took the Grammy for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance in 1981. It found a second life on sports TV, too, when NBC used it as the theme for its NCAA men's basketball tournament coverage in 1980 and 1981.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.