I normally blog about Glee on Wednesdays but it's on hiatus until next year (yay! boo!). To quench our collective thirsts for passionate musical moments here's two BONUS Christmas Music Countdown songs. I think it makes a nice companion piece to Dominick the Donkey and I think this girl makes some compelling arguments.

Oklahoma songwriter John Rox wrote "I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas" in 1953 and recorded it with a local child star - the 10-year-old Gayla Peevey - singing the vocals. The song was so popular that a local radio DJ set up a successful campaign to actually raise money to give Peevey a hippopotamus (which she foolishly re-gifted to the Oklahoma City Zoo). I'm posting the record's amazing b-side (that was later semi-covered by Ween!), "Are My Ears on Straight?". It was so popular that Oklahoma locals bought Gayla Peevey an expensive surgical operation to straighten out her ears.

h/t to Ben and Kara for introducing me to Gayla.