Gary Portnoy

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Gary Portnoy (born January 1, 1956)[1] is a singer/ songwriter, best known for singing the theme songs to two U.S. television sitcoms:

Cheers Theme: "Where Everybody Knows Your Name"
Punky Brewster Theme: "Every Time I Turn Around"

Both songs were written by Portnoy and Judy Hart Angelo. (They also composed the theme to the long running television series Mr Belvedere.)

1 Career
2 Discography
3 External links
4 References

[edit] Career

Portnoy and Angelo were composing the score to a Broadway musical Preppies in the early 1980s when one of the producers of Cheers heard their opening number, "People Like Us". He wanted to use the song as the theme for his upcoming show, Cheers. However, the producers of Preppies wouldn't release it. Portnoy and Angelo then set out to write a new theme for Cheers. After their first two attempts were rejected, "Where Everybody Knows Your Name" was born and the rest, as they say, is history.[2]

Often overlooked is the fact that prior to Cheers, Portnoy was already a successful and highly regarded young songwriter. His songs had been cut by Dolly Parton and Air Supply, and he had recorded a self-titled album for Columbia Records. (That album was recently re-released on CD by Sony Japan and its first two pressings quickly sold out.) He had also written several songs for the critically acclaimed NBC series Fame, one of which ("I Still Believe In Me") went on to be nominated for an Emmy Award for best original song.

After his television work of the 1980's- which lead to an Emmy nomination for "Cheers" and six consecutive ASCAP awards for the Most Performed Television Themes of the year- Portnoy took an extended hiatus from the music business. In the late 90's he and co-writer Gloria Nissension began making regular visits to Nashville and some of the songs that they wrote there appear on Portnoy's 2004 CD Keeper. (That CD also includes the original full-length version of the Cheers theme that had never before been available on CD).

January 2007 brings the release of Gary Portnoy's latest CD Destiny, a heartfelt and revealing mid-life rumination on friendship, family, and faith. It includes 11 new songs and a never before released full length version of the Mr. Belvedere theme.