Taking a break from the hit songs of 1975 this week. Instead, here is “I Want A Hippopotamus For Christmas” by Gayla Peevey. This was on Toast of the Town which would later be called the Ed Sullivan Show. Ed does the introduction and says hello to Gayla at the end. This is dated October 18, 1953.

Gayla is singing 100% live with the show’s orchestra. There is another video of the song on YouTube where they replaced the original audio with the audio from her record. You may have to turn up your sound a little.