I have always been fascinated by the world of TV theme songs. Whenever I watch a show like The Simpsons or Friends I always wonder how much the songwriter got paid to write the theme song. Did he/she get paid a one time fee or does he get a check every time the show airs? Does writing one hit theme song make you enough money to retire for life? Well, who better to ask than Gary Portnoy, whose song “Where Everybody Knows Your Name” from the sitcom Cheers is widely considered to be the most popular and famous theme song of all time. Cheers aired 275 episodes over 11 seasons and was eventually syndicated to 40 countries and 180 American TV markets. And now with the advent of technology like iTunes and Netflix streaming, it’s very likely that an episode of Cheers is playing somewhere in the world 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. But how does that affect a guy like Gary Portnoy, who was a broke 20-something songwriter when he wrote wrote what would become one of the most famous songs of all time?
Gary gives a very detailed and fascinating history of how the song originally came about on his website GaryPortnoy.com. I highly recommend everyone take a minute to check out his site and visit his iTunes page to hear some of his greatest hits including “Where Everybody Knows Your Name” as well as the themes to Punky Brewster and Mr. Belvedere!
The interview:
The song was recorded August 13th 1982. What did you feel immediately after finishing the track? Did you know it was going to be a hit? Or was it just another job?
→ As a child of TV who grew up watching Andy Griffith and Dick Van Dyke, I was very excited to be doing a theme song.
You had written many songs before this for artists like Air Supply and Dolly Parton. When did you know this was something different?
→ Mainly I was just excited about the song. I had written many songs before and 9 times out of 10 they go nowhere so I was excited because I knew this song was special. I was also worried and frustrated that the powers that be might kill the song by giving it to a loser TV show but once I was shown an uncut version of the Cheers pilot I knew within the first two scenes that this was something special.
When did your life change?
→Does life change really? It changed in stages. The day after the show aired people were calling the publisher asking where they could buy my song. “Where’s the sheet music, where’s the record?” I had never experienced that kind of reaction before so that felt great. Of course we quickly put out a full length record with the song but at the time the show was not actually getting great ratings so no one really bought the album. In hindsight the record should have come out in the third or fourth season, then it might have been a bigger hit.
Slowly over the years the song and the show fed off each other and kept growing together. But for the first few years I had no real perception of the song’s popularity. Possibly because there was no such thing as the internet. For years I had no sense of how ingrained the show and song were. Even after the show ended and the initial syndication excitement died down, I still didn’t understand. It wasn’t until the internet came and a friend suggested I put together a website. I put up a site and I immediately started hearing from thousands of people all over the world saying such nice things, how much the song meant to them. Before then, the show had faded slightly, but then 5-6 years ago I started getting flooded with emails and comments.
I mean I wasn’t completely unaware. The song had obviously been a financial success. But I didn’t make the full connection until around 2004. And now it feels great. It’s my little footprint on the world.
Did you watch every new episode of Cheers when they aired?
→ Yes.
How does TV songwriting ownership work? If I write a song today that is used on a TV show, do I own it? Do I get paid a one time fee or is it a residual thing? Do you still own the rights to your songs?
→ Depends who you are. If Lady Gaga wrote a theme song today, she could probably demand that she owns everything. But not if you are a young unknown writer. In 1982 I was a twenty-something unknown who wasn’t in the position to make demands. Even though I had already written many songs for major artists like Dolly Parton and Air Supply, I still had to give up the publishing rights to Paramount. It was non-negotiable. Do you want the song on the show? Then we own the publishing. That means that right from the get go I knew I would never have a say in the life of the song. I wouldn’t control where and how it would be used. If I owned the publishing rights I would be a very rich man. Copyright is where it is at. But that doesn’t mean it wasn’t financially lucrative! Any time the publisher makes $1, the writer gets half. But I had to give up control and that was tough because at the time I was a broke songwriter and every beer company in the world was dying to pay a fortune to use the song in their commercials. It was very frustrating. But it’s being licensed more now that the show is older. And since I’m the singer, if they want to use my vocals they need my permission. And the song actually features six singers, all of whom are me, (his vocals were laid onto each other six times) so I actually can demand they pay me six times. When they object I say “What if it was a band with six members? You’d have to pay those six people”. It’s the one brief moment where I have power in how the song is used. If they still object I say to them “go get someone else to sing it” and I still get paid a performance royalty.
Do you have any advice for aspiring singers/songwriters?
→ If you give up your copyright you give up your vote forever. I didn’t have a choice, Paramount was going to expose the song all over the world to millions of people so those were the terms of the deal. But it’s really good to be aware of copyright. Don’t be stupid, never give up ownership lightly. But also don’t cut off your nose to spite your face, I know many talented writers who refused to ever sell any piece of their work and unfortunately they never left Long Island.
Did you see The Simpsons send up of the song in the Flaming Moe’s episode? What was your reaction to that? Did they need your permission?
→ No one needs my permission. CBS can do whatever they want. Also it was not my voice. I’m not even sure whose voice it was, at first I thought it was Paul Simon which would have been incredibly flattering. Whoever it was did a great job and I loved it. But to be honest, I wasn’t a Simpsons fan and this was before the internet so I didn’t even know it happened for several months. I didn’t know about it until I got a royalty check. Along with the check you see an itemized list explaining everything and that’s when I noticed The Simpsons. That was surprising so I had to track down what happened.
If you wanted to, could you have never worked again and lived a comfortable life off your Cheers royalties?
→ (Laughs) YES. A VERY comfortable life. The song is played all over the world every day in 40 different countries and I get paid every time. Recently, licensing has become a big source of income for me. My primary income is no longer from Cheers, today it comes mainly from licensing the song which is interesting because it means the song has outlived the vehicle that it was originally attached to. Now that the song and the show are almost 30 years old, the publisher CBS (Paramount was eventually sold to CBS) has been licensing the song more and more. And it’s their job to exploit it and make money. They’ve sold it to Dr. Pepper, State Farm Insurance, even a Hallmark card that plays the song when you open it up. And every time they license the song, I get paid.
How do you actually get paid? Where does the check come from and how often? Do you get royalties or a lump sum? By check or direct deposit? Who actually writes the check? Do you really get paid any time the show airs?
→ First of all, never take a lump sum. I think it’s even illegal now to buy someone’s rights in a lump sum which used to happen a lot in the early days of music and totally screwed people over. Always take royalties. Any time the show airs, any time the song is played on the radio, TV, even the internet you are entitled to a royalty. Any public performance the artist gets paid. You join one of the unions ASCAP, BMI or SESAC and they monitor all performances for you, all radio, television, and internet. You get paid quarterly. You can choose either direct deposit or check. It used to only be checks but now they are all pushing for direct deposit to save the paper. I chose direct deposits.
If the song is sold on a record or through iTunes you get paid by your publisher. The publisher collects and distributes the residual. There are three main types of royalties:
1) Public performance (Any time the song is played on television, radio, internet etc)
2) Mechanical royalties (Any time the song is mechanically reproduced onto some type of media like a CD or cassette tape and then sold)
3) If you’re lucky enough to actually sing the song like I did, you also get a residual from the Screen Actors Guild (SAG).
Did you see a big increase in mechanical royalties with the advent of iTunes and Shazam now that people can hear a song and instantly purchase it on a whim?
→ YES. A massive uptick happened in 2003 when iTunes came out. Prior to 2003 the song had fallen between the cracks a bit. The show had been off the air for over 10 years, the big syndication boom had faded and the only way to really buy the song was on a compilation CD like a Reader’s Digest “Best TV Theme Songs” that cost $16. It was very difficult for someone to buy the single. I remember asking a friend if I should sign up for this iTunes thing. There was a $30 or $50 fee to sign up for an account and my friend said “Don’t do it, it’s just a scam for Apple to make $50 off every aspiring singer in the world”. But I did it anyway and immediately started getting checks. iTunes just took off. People wanted the song on their phones, they wanted the ring tone… It was crazy. I was amazed at how many people were buying the record, where were all these people coming from? And the best part is, several years earlier I had re-recorded a full length 2:30 master version that includes extra verses not heard on the 60 second Cheers version. I own 100% of the rights to full master that the majority of people end up buying on iTunes.
Most people end up buying the full 2:30 version that has a few extra verses?
→ Yes. I think it costs 99 cents. iTunes has become a major player for me. I’m still amazed at the steady a stream of sales I get off there. And any time the song is used in a commercial I see a huge spike in iTunes sales. I also saw a big uptick when the show became available on Netflix streaming. Thirty years later new people were finding the show for the first time and old people were re-discovering it.
How often do you hear the song and what does it make you feel now? Do you ever get sick of it?
→ The song is like my child. It has my heart and I’m very lucky that I never got sick of it. When I hear it today I get a very warm feeling. The song is really blessed to be almost 30 years old and people still want to hear it. The song has an energy/life form, I have to shake my head. I’m very lucky.
The song has become somewhat of an anthem at many bars. Often patrons sing along with a piano player at closing time. Have you ever been in a situation where someone or a group of people started singing the song around you without knowing who you are?
→ I can’t say that I’ve ever been in that situation but my mother had a very bizarre experience. My mother was an alcoholic and attended AA meetings. One time at a meeting she had never been to, out of nowhere the entire group started singing “Where Everybody Knows Your Name”. Turns out, that was part of their ritual which is ironic when you remember that the song is very associated with going to bars and drinking. Very ironic.
Have you ever performed the song live in a bar?
Yes and it was an amazing experience. Once I went down to Nashville for one of these writers rounds things where they invite in a bunch of writers to town to play live at local bars. I had played a bunch of my other songs and not really gotten much of a reaction from the crowd. So I announced “You know what, I’ve always wanted to play THIS song in a bar”. As soon as I played those first few piano keys “duh, da da da..da da…” the crowd went insane. For about a minute I understood what it’s like to be Bruce Springsteen. I was shocked honestly. I finally understood the power my fingers had.
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Read more: Interview With Gary Portnoy: The Cheers Theme Song Writer