[thelist] Efficient Redirect: html to php

[live4bacon at optonline.net]

Good day,
I am looking to take an established website (ie indexed by the major search engines w/ great to decent rankings) which is made up entirely of .html pages and convert it to .php pages.

And I am not so sure that htaccess redirects are the most efficient way to get this done.  

Can you all enlighten me on the most efficient way to accomplish this move! Which would not affect my search engine results and be transparent to the visitor coming from old links/bookmarks.

Right now the only option I can see is an htaccess 301 redirect for 60+ pages. 
And I am aware that I could use wild cards to change all .html to .php however some pages will be remaining .html files.

Thanks for sharing your infinite wisdom,
Johnny Poston