Gary Portnoy the "Cheers" theme song. Gary Portnoy Gary Portnoy (born June 8, 1956) is an American musician and singer-songwriter. He is best known for co-writing and performing the main theme song of the NBC sitcom "Cheers", "Where Everybody Knows Your Name". In the early 1980s, Gary Portnoy and Judy Hart Angelo set out to write a theme for "Cheers". After their first two attempts were rejected, "Where Everybody Knows Your Name" was selected. Prior to that, Portnoy's songs had been recorded by various artists, including Dolly Parton's "Say Goodnight" (co-written by Susan Sheridan) and Air Supply's "I'll Never Get Enough of
Mike Portnoy Howard Portnoy, worked as a DJ at a local radio station. Mike and his father later moved to Carmel-by-the-Sea, California to work at KRML radio station after watching the 1971 film "Play Misty for Me". His mother died on November 16, 1984, when the private plane she was riding in, with her boyfriend, crashed off the Atlantic City coastline. Portnoy's father's job helped him gain an appreciation for music at an early age particularly, as Portnoy has pointed out, because he had access to his father's collection of LPs. He developed a preference for bands including Rush, Queen, Led Zeppelin,