“This Is It”
Written by Kenny Loggins & Michael McDonald
Videos by American Songwriter
The love song has a unanimous appeal. It tells of the most noteworthy human experiences and for that reason it has also a tried and true method for selling records and filling concert seats. For this same reason, the love song is a kind of writing box that many songwriters for the last hundred years have gotten stuck in.
Not every song should be a love song, and sometimes this isn’t obvious. Sometimes artists very intentionally break the form. Take my favorite Beatles album, Rubber Soul, for example. You can hear one of the greatest popular rock bands breaking the form from one track to the next. Up to that point, the Beatles were nationally acclaimed for writing and performing love songs to hordes of shrieking teenagers. On Rubber Soul, the Beatles have love songs, but those songs were getting stranger and progressively less lovey-infused.
The second song on the album, “Norwegian Wood,” showcases George Harrison’s pioneering use of the sitar and tells a story written by John Lennon about an extramarital affair. “Run for Your Life” was another Lennon track with gender roles reversed to conceal its meaning—Lennon running for his life from his then-current wife, Cynthia. “You won’t See Me” and “I’m Looking Through You” are both Paul McCartney songs based on his chaotic relationship with his fiancee, Jane Asher. Finally, “Think For Yourself” was added by George Harrison with the simple notion that he wanted to expand beyond love songs altogether.
In 1979 singer-songwriter Kenny Loggins would face a similar writing dilemma. He and Michael McDonald had been meeting regularly to write songs. They were working on a “favorite unfinished melody” but still struggled with the lyrics. Ten years later Loggins explained it to American Songwriter:
“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.’”
While the two songwriters struggled, another drama was unfolding in Loggins’ personal life. His father was in the hospital facing cardiovascular surgery. It was the latest of a dozen or so surgeries to treat a series of strokes and related diseases. Said to be a lifelong athlete “with determination, confidence and a winner’s spirit,” Loggins’ father had become emotionally worn down, depressed and according to Loggins, had “finally made up his mind he was going to die on the operating table.”
Back at the songwriting work table, Loggins and McDonald were stuck, specifically on the two lines that had come from the initial creation of their song’s melody.
“There been times in my life / I’ve been wondering why / And you think that maybe it’s over / Only if you want it to be.”
They assumed the lines had something to do with lost love boy/girl problems. Then during one visit at the hospital, listening to his father speak of dying, Loggins exploded, “You’ve got some say over how this goes, ya know?” This is it, dad. Make a choice!” Angry and embarrassed, Loggins’ father fell silent and his son stormed out of the room late for his songwriting workshop with McDonald. But the words Loggins had uttered to his father remained in the front of his mind. “I’ve got it, he later realized at McDonald’s house. “It’s not a love song. It’s a life song.” The unfinished melody suddenly made sense and the rest of the song’s lyrics “literally came flooding out.”
That evening, Loggins returned to his father at the hospital and performed his first demo of “This Is It.” A year later the song earned a Grammy for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance.