Where Everybody Knows Your Name
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| “Where Everybody Knows Your Name” | ||
|---|---|---|
| Single by Gary Portnoy Judy Hart Angelo |
||
| Released | 1982 | |
| Recorded | 1982 | |
| Genre | Pop Theme song |
|
"Where Everybody Knows Your Name" is the theme song from the 1980s television sitcom Cheers. The song was written by Gary Portnoy and Judy Hart Angelo. The Portnoy-Angelo theme for Cheers is one of the most memorable in TV history. Several weeks after the premiere, Portnoy went back into the studio to record a full-length version of the song that made the pop charts. It has since been released on albums several times, as well as covered by numerous other singers and bands.
[edit] History
In 1981, songwriter Gary Portnoy had just been fired as a staff writer from a major music publisher. His friend Judy Hart Angelo happened to meet a Broadway producer at dinner one night who needed a score written for a new musical he was producing. They decided to team up. Gary had never written for the theater; Judy had never written a song
In the spring of 1982, Portnoy and Angelo were songwriting for an off-Broadway show called Preppies. Angelo sent a tape of the show's theme song, "People Like Us", to a friend in California, who passed it on to Cheers co-creators and producers Glen and Les Charles. They thought that "People Like Us" would be the perfect theme song for their show, set at a friendly Boston bar.
Unfortunately, "People Like Us" belonged to Preppies, and was a crucial part of it, so the duo agreed to write a new song for Cheers - the producer for the show had also moved to legally block Paramount (which had signed on to Cheers) from using "People Like Us.".[1] The second iteration, titled "My Kind of People", was essentially a reworked version of the "People Like Us," losing some originality in the process.
Rejected, Portnoy and Angelo wrote and submitted two more potential themes. One of them, entitled "Another Day" contained a lyric line "There are times when it's fun to take the long way home" that greatly appealed to the Charles brothers. But, overall, the song missed the mark and was passed on.
The fourth song began with an inviting intro followed by simple, alternating chords on a piano for the verses. An uplifting refrain seemed to come almost naturally out of that, and the two songwriters had recorded a simple demo for the Cheers producers. This song was "Where Everybody Knows Your Name." Upon hearing it, the producers immediately chose it as the song for Cheers. After a few lyric changes designed to broaden the song's appeal to a more general audience, Portnoy sang the song himself for the television version. Producers wanted to keep the simple feel of the demo in the real version, also keeping the number of instruments down to a minimum.
Portnoy and Angelo's demo had included more verses than the single one heard in the television version. They were later released in a full length recording of the song.
In 2006 a portion of the song was used on the sitcom How I Met Your Mother during the episode Swarley. Barney enters his regular bar to be greeted by his hated nickname "Swarley" after which the bartender plays the song and the ending credits use the same font as Cheers.
In 2008, the song was used in a Diet Dr. Pepper commercial and a Kelsey's commercial.
[edit] Lyrics
Various online sources[2][3](as well as recital of the song from the TV introduction and the full-length version) have listed both the TV song and the full-length versions.
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"Gary Portnoy's website [1]contains a detailed, biographical account of the story behind the Cheers theme, including recordings of rejected earlier efforts as well as the original demo recording of Where Everybody Knows Your Name.
"Lyrics On Demand - Cheers Lyrics" [2]
"ST Lyrics - ("Where Everybody Knows Your Name" by Gary Portnoy and Judy Hart Angelo) lyrics - Cheers" [3]
"Where Everybody Knows Your Name - Gary Portnoy and Judy Hart Angelo (Lyrics and Chords)" [4]
