Songfacts®:

• "The Best" is a bittersweet pop ballad where Conan Gray reflects on a relationship that was ultimately unhealthy or painful yet acknowledges that selective memory preserves the beautiful moments. He reaches a place of genuine acceptance and wishes his ex the best.
• "The Best" was released on March 27, 2026, as the lead single and closing track of Wishbone (Deluxe), the expanded edition of Gray's 2025 album Wishbone, which adds five new songs to the original 12-track LP.
  
  Wishbone was Gray's first album inspired by an actual relationship and breakup, rather than imagined heartbreak. The relationship in question involved an on-and-off dynamic that ended abruptly, reportedly with his ex calling to break things off while Gray was on his way to visit, then blocking him. It was messy enough that Gray wrote over 300 songs about it over two years, with only 12 making the original Wishbone tracklist.
• "The Best" belongs to the aftermath of that story, not the storm itself. Gray said that the Wishbone Deluxe songs represent feelings he "could only reach in the aftermath of the album's release," emotions inaccessible while he was still processing the pain. That makes "The Best" particularly significant: it's the moment Gray arrives at genuine closure, wishing his ex well without the usual side order of bitterness. In pop terms, it sits closer to the rueful grace of Taylor Swift's "Back To December" or the dignified heartache of "Someone Like You," a song where Adele arrives at the door of her ex's new life, wishes him well, and somehow means it, and perhaps even the emotional shrug of Gotye's "Somebody That I Used To Know": songs where the relationship ends, but the world, rather inconveniently, does not.
  
  As for the subject of the song, Gray has kept their identity private, confirming only that the relationship was real and ultimately transformative.
• Conan Gray wrote "The Best" with Jon Buscema, who also produced it. Buscema played nearly every instrument on the recording - drum kit, percussion, bass, electric guitar, acoustic guitar, piano, and synthesizer - as well as programming and engineering.
  
  Buscema is a graduate of the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, where he studied jazz performance. Buscema's relationship with Conan Gray grew through his collaboration with Daniel Nigro, Gray's primary producer. He first worked on a Conan Gray track as co-producer on "Caramel" from the original Wishbone album. That relationship deepened significantly for Wishbone Deluxe, where he sole-produced and co-wrote "The Best."
• Gray first performed the song at the opening night in Minneapolis of his Wishbone World Tour on February 19, 2026, at the Target Center, and it quickly became a fan favorite on the road before its official release.