Good gnus, Sandra Boynton fans! The popular author, songwriter and illustrator has released her fourth CD/book.

The songs on "Blue Moo: 17 Jukebox Hits from Way Back Never" were recorded by some well-known performers and sound as if they were written in the 1950s and '60s (but they're more fun).

Beach Boy Brian Wilson sings all 11 parts on "Speed Turtle," ex-Monkee Davy Jones sings "Your Personal Penguin," and B.B. King thumps out "One Shoe Blues":

Boynton introduced several of the songs recently at the Kennedy Center's Millennium Stage in Washington, D.C. Her band included Jones and her four children, the youngest of whom is a teenager.

Boynton, 54, grew up in Pennsylvania and now lives in Connecticut. Her first fame came as a greeting-card artist: "I needed to make some money for college, but I hated being a waitress," she says.

A birthday card she drew in 1975 -- "Hip-po bir-die two ewe ... hippo birdie deer ewe," it reads -- has sold more than 10 million copies and been re-drawn five times. (The printing plates wear out.) She has designed an estimated 6,000 greeting cards in all. The first of her nearly 50 books was "Hippos Go Berserk!" Other popular titles include "Pajama Time," "Oh My Oh My Oh Dinosaurs!" and "Barnyard Dance!"

She has also designed baby clothes, toys, calendars, gift wrap, coffee mugs, note pads, jewelry and pajamas. (At the Kennedy Center, she wore pajamas onstage.)

Boynton started writing songs in 1995 with the words for "Rhinoceros Tap," another CD/book. She and musician Michael Ford have teamed on approximately 50 songs, including two other CD/books: "Philadelphia Chickens" and "Dog Train," which has songs by Weird Al Yankovic and Hootie and the Blowfish.

Besides hippos, pigs, cats and dogs, koalas and cows, Boynton draws romantic porcupines, tango-happy rabbits, purple elephants, bashful bears, angry anteaters, opera-quacking ducks and swing-dancing chickens.

She works in an old barn that has a hippo weather vane on top.

Sometimes the words come first, she says, and sometimes the drawings. And sometimes both come at the same time. "Blue Moo" took about eight months to write.

In real life, Boynton doesn't own any pigs or cats (or hippos) -- just two dogs, Zephyr and Gilligan.

"They're rescue dogs, part Lab and part pit bull. ... They're not the brightest dogs in the world, but they're very affectionate. In fact, Gilligan thinks he's a lap dog, even though he's absolutely enormous. He's always trying to crawl into your lap."

Boynton's husband, Olympic canoeing medalist Jamie Mc- Ewan, also writes books, and sometimes she illustrates them.