Someone from the Mercury label caught the duet and was impressed enough to offer Philbin a chance to record an album. The label issued his standards-filled debut, It's Time for Regis!, in 1968. Philbin went on to host successful daytime talk shows and game shows, but it was his 1985 job with Kathie Lee Gifford that put his career over the top. Live with Regis & Kathie Lee took daytime television by storm, and when Gifford left and was replaced by Kelly Ripa in 2001, the show retained its audience without missing a beat. In 1999, Philbin became the host of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, one of the most successful prime-time game shows ever.
Philbin had been making singing appearances in Atlantic City, Las Vegas, and Connecticut for most of the '90s, occasionally broke into song on his daytime show, and had his debut reissued on CD in 1994, but there were no new releases for his now-huge fan base. Philbin corrected this oversight in 2004 when he released When You're Smiling on the Hollywood Records label. The CD included a new version of the song that meant so much to Philbin for all these years, "Pennies from Heaven." A year later he returned with The Regis Philbin Christmas Album, which included appearances by Steve Tyrell and Donald Trump. Just You. Just Me., an album of duets with his wife, Joy Senese, was released in 2009 by Big Dot Records. Regis Philbin died on July 24, 2020; he was 88 years old. ~ David Jeffries, Rovi