Where Everybody Knows Your Name the perfect theme song for their upcoming NBC sitcom, "Cheers". Upon learning that "People Like Us" was legally bound to the musical Preppies, the Charles Brothers asked Portnoy and Hart Angelo to take a shot at composing a theme specifically for "Cheers". The song that resulted, "My Kind of People", was somewhat of a reworked version of "People Like Us". It was subsequently rejected. Portnoy and Hart Angelo then wrote and submitted two more potential themes for "Cheers". One of them, entitled "Another Day", contained a lyric line "There are times when it's fun to take the long way home"
Jerry Portnoy London's Royal Albert Hall as part of Clapton's 24-night stand. In 1993, he joined Clapton's band and remained with it through 1996. During this time, the band recorded Clapton's blues album "From the Cradle". Portnoy has performed in twenty-eight foreign countries on six continents, including performances at the White House, Carnegie Hall, Radio City Music Hall, the Smithsonian, the Newport Jazz Festival and other major jazz and blues festivals worldwide. He was a Grammy Award nominee in 1996 for his work with the Muddy Waters Tribute Band on their recording "You're Gonna Miss Me When I'm Dead and Gone", and