Music hop
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Music Hop was a nationally televised show in Canada that made its debut in the 1960s, hosted by Alex Trebek, later much more famous as the host of Jeopardy. The show was broadcast out of Toronto, and featured a house band called Norm Amadio and the Rhythm Rockers. That band included two later long time members of Gordon Lightfoot's band (guitarist Red Shea and bassist John Stockfish) as well as well-known jazz musician Don Thompson. The format called for the house band and locally based singers to perform the hits of the day, rarely featuring any of their own material, and soon led to similar shows being produced across the country.
Eventually, Music Hop became a blanket name for five separate shows, each weekly, and on the schedule of Halifax on Monday (also known as Frank's Bandstand); Montreal on Tuesday; Winnipeg on Wednesday (originally with a country slant but switching to rock and pop when local heroes The Guess Who became the house band after the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation determined that original host Ray St. Germain, and band leader Lenny Breau weren't reaching the desired audience of teens); Toronto's Music Hop on Thursday; and, finally, Vancouver on Fridays (also known as Let's Go) with house band The Classics, who later became better known as, first, The Collectors, and, later, Chilliwack.
The show was one of the most important building blocks in developing a national identity for Canadian music, and through the various local shows was among the first places Canadians learned of such talents as Anne Murray, Terry Jacks, the aforementioned Guess Who, and many others.
