[6][5] The song is the winner out of thousands of entries for the 2008 American Idol Songwriter's Competition, and was written by Regie Hamm.

The song was sent to the radio stations following the end of the airing of American Idol finale in Hawaii.

In June 2009, in the ABC soap opera One Life to Live, the Llanview school chorus sang the song.

In the U.S., the song debuted on the Billboard Hot 100 chart dated June 7, 2008 at number three with 236,000 copies sold in its first week of release.

Due to low first-week airplay in the U.S., the song was prevented from debuting at number one by Lil Wayne's "Lollipop" featuring Static Major and Leona Lewis's "Bleeding Love".

[14] The song ceded the top spot to "Bleeding Love" for two weeks before returning to number one on the chart dated October 11, 2008.

The RIAA certified "The Time of My Life" Platinum on December 12, 2008 for selling over 1 million digital downloads,[4] making it the second platinum-selling coronation song for an American Idol winner, after Kelly Clarkson's "A Moment Like This".

The hit single has joined the ranks of selected Nashville–penned songs that have achieved remarkable success at the number one spot, including Elvis' "Heartbreak Hotel" in 1956.