The hits keep coming from Gayla Peevey.
The onetime child star whose 1953 song “I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas” was featured in the Postal Service’s recent holiday TV campaign is back on the charts.
The song debuted at No. 2 on Billboard’s Top TV Commercials chart, the music industry trade publication reported this week.
“I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas” earned 30,000 paid downloads was streamed 10 million times in December, according to Nielsen Music.
The song appears annually on Billboard’s Holiday 100 chart, where it peaked at No. 25 in 2012. The recording reached No. 24 on the pop charts in 1953.
“I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas” was the centerpiece of the Postal Service’s main holiday TV spot, which showed a little girl receiving a hippo for the holidays with help from USPS.
The commercial also received positive reviews from the advertising industry.
Peevey, who recorded the song when she was 10, recently told The New York Times she is delighted people are discovering — or rediscovering — the tune.
“I’ve retired, but my song hasn’t,” Peevey said.