This Is It by Kenny Loggins

Album: Keep The Fire (1979)

Charted: 11

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Songfacts®:

Kenny Loggins and Michael McDonald wrote this after Kenny's father had a serious heart problem and didn't know what to do about it. So they came up with this song about a man who is suffering terrible pain, looks to find his miracle and needs to "stand up and fight."
After Loggins won a Grammy for the song in 1981 (Best Male Pop Vocal) he played it for his father, who lived four more years.
Michael McDonald sang backup and played keyboards on the track. The two also collaborated on "What a Fool Believes." McDonald would go on to write several other songs for Loggins (and vice versa).
The gospel singer Kirk Franklin rewrote this song as "Declaration (This is It)" for his 2007 album, The Fight Of My Life. Franklin's version is about faith in God. >>
Suggestion credit:
Sara - Silver Spring, MD, for all above
Kenny Loggins spoke to American Songwriter magazine November/December 1987 about this song: "The best musical statements are usually the ones that aren't calculated and the ones that come out in the largest chunks. Michael McDonald and I must have written 'This Is It' four times. The first three times it was a love song, 'Baby I this, baby I that…,' and we both said, 'Eh! This is boring. This song is not working as a love song.'

Then I had a fight with my dad when he was going into the hospital because he gave me the feeling that he was ready to check out. He'd given up, he wasn't thinking in terms of the future, and I was so pissed at him. It was real emotional. That afternoon, I was meeting with Michael to work on new tunes and I walked in and said, 'Man, I got it. It's 'This Is It.' And Michael said, 'This is it?' I said, 'Trust me. This is it.' But that one took a while.

And then one review said it was your average boy-girl song and the writer didn't understand why people were making such a big deal out of it. The fact of the matter was, he didn't understand the song and it didn't move him because he wasn't in a situation to be moved. But immediately after that, I got a letter from a girl who had just recently gotten out of the hospital from a life-and-death situation and that was her anthem. She was holding onto it. That means so much more to me. She hadn't read the press about my father or anything. All she knew was that the song was on the nose for her, exactly what Michael and I intended. That makes you feel like you're doing something important."
Nas sampled this on "We Will Survive," a track from his chart-topping 1999 album, I Am....
This was Loggins' first single to make the R&B chart, where it peaked at #19. It also went to #17 on the Adult Contemporary chart and #11 on the Billboard Hot 100.
This was used on the sitcom WKRP In Cincinnati ("Venus Rising" - 1980). It was also featured in the movies Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues (2013) and Stay Cool (2009).
Loggins and McDonald were spooked after their first collaboration, "What A Fool Believes," became a hit for McDonald's band The Doobie Brothers and won a pair of Grammys for Song of the Year and Record of the Year. Fearing they couldn't top their first hit, they put off working together again for a while until Loggins insisted they meet up and write "a shitty song" to shake out their nerves. They ended up writing "This Is It."

Comments: 8

Christine Olney from Lake Odessa MichiganLove this song and it is about his dad being in the hospital dying but Kenny had 10 more years with him after that what a tribute to his dad a wonderful song just as Kenny is he is number one to me and he always will be!
Sara from Silver Spring, MdThe song was originally to be about boy-girl relationship.
Ac from San Jose, CaI saw an interview with Kenny Loggins. He said parts of this song were inspired by his father, who being in the hospital had said something to the effect that he was ready to die, and he was ready to give up. This frustrated Kenny to the point that he said something along the lines of "Look, This is it. If you choose to give up that's your decision" I got the feeling that his father had a case of the PLOMS (poor little old me) I understand completely since I have a relative who's the same way.
Eugene from Minneapolis, MnI think most of us realise that this has nothing to with medical conditions. I heard the story behind this hit record on Dick Clark's then "Countdown America" on an AC radio station in South Dakota back in 1992. It was during the spotlight on Kenny Loggins. Anyway, I remember Kenny explaining that he wrote this song BECAUSE of his father's medical condition. And yes it is certainly about making decisions,taking a stand and fighting. This was what he told his father while he was in hospital getting treated for his condition.
Sara from Silver Spring, MdIt has been used for various college basketball playoffs.
Jeff from Austin, Txmichael mcdonald's beard and hair ruled.
Barry from Greenville, NcWhat a great song! Really takes me back to a wonderful era of pop hits produced in the early '80s. The beginning of this song always gives me chills.
Sara from Silver Spring, MdIt has nothing to do with medical conditions. It is about making decisions.
Michael McDonald should have recorded it (instead of the long version by the once popular Millie Jackson) although he has performed it onstage with Mr. Loggins.
Declaration (This is It) is actually a sample of THIS IS IT.

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