When I began writing, there were only 25 minutes until lunch for my 2nd graders. I just spent 8 of those minutes trying to figure out how to save this graphic as an image on my computer rather than just clipart in Word. 8 minutes later, I've learned a new task!Our 2nd graders were able to enjoy the sounds of Los Gatos, a Latin Band featuring Afro-Cuban, Puerto Rican, and Chilean rhythms at school today. The band was very interesting. They had many different instruments, including one of music teacher's favorites, a wooden frog percussion instrument that sounds like a frog when you run the mallet up the frog's back. That was my favorite part of the assembly: when they had 4 different-sized instruments and they played them in a little frog choir that made me feel like frogs were all around.
Anyway, the reason I even began this post in the first place was to comment on a song I heard in the car on the way to a run last evening. I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas is a very interesting song. I did a little research and found out more from the ever-handy, always (ha!) reliable, Wikipedia. Here's what they said:
I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas is a Christmas novelty song written by John Coctoasten and performed by Gayla Peevey (11 years old at the time) in 1953. According to legend, she was a regional child star of the Oklahoma City area. This 1953 hit was recorded as a fund-raiser to bring the city zoo a hippo. When released nationally by Columbia Records the song shot to the top of the charts, and the city zoo got a baby hippo named Matilda.
It is a Dr. Demento Christmas staple, and is currently available on Dr. Demento's The Greatest Novelty Records of All Time Vol. 6: Christmas. (Wikipedia)
Interesting how songs get started and then written...
Anyway, if you haven't heard it lately, you should check it out on iTunes. It's worth the 99¢. You can't get much better than the whiny, snot-nosed Gayla Peevey begging Mommy and Daddy for a vegetarian hippopotamus for Christmas.
Just a thought.
