Paul & Paula - Hey Paul - The Very Best Of (2013)

Getting a number-one pop hit was easy for West Texans Ray Hildebrand and Jill Jackson. The duo were students at Howard Payne College when they answered a call for entertainers to volunteer to benefit the American Cancer Society. They sang "Hey Paula," a song Hildebrand wrote. It went over so well that everybody encouraged them to make a record.

Major Bill Smith's LeCam label in Fort Worth, Texas, had just scored a major hit with Bruce Channel, so they drove there late in 1962 hoping for an unscheduled audition. Smith was busy recording that Saturday, but they hung around anyway. Opportunity knocked when Amos Milburn, Jr. didn't show and Smith had five musicians sitting around exchanging snaps at five dollars each. Not wanting to blow the money, he asked Hildebrand and Jackson to sing their song. After a brief audition, Smith took them in the studio. The rest is history.

Smith offered "Hey Paula" to Vee Jay Records but Ewart Abner turned it down. So he released it on LeCam, as by Jill & Ray. (Abner realized his error and paired Jerry Butler and Betty Everett after "Hey Paula" exploded.) The hot seller caught the attention of Mercury Records' Shelby Singleton. Mercury reissued it on its Phillips subsidiary. But not before Singleton renamed them Paul & Paula, pointing out that two people name Jill & Ray singing the lyrics "Hey, hey Paula" and "Hey, hey Paul" didn't make sense. They resented -- everybody in West Texas knew them as Jill & Ray -- but later acquiesced.

"Hey Paula" sold nearly two-million copies early in 1963. They followed with "Young Lovers" and "First Quarrel." A couple of albums, including one of Christmas songs, followed. "Hey Paula" originally ran more than six minutes. But Smith said it was too long, and Hildebrand used the cut parts to create "Young Lovers."

Everything seemed like a fantastic dream, but by 1965 Hildebrand had second thoughts. He didn't like traveling. Plus, he wanted to complete his college education. (His parents were schoolteachers.) The final straw came when he left Jackson in a lurch on a Dick Clark Caravan of Stars tour and Clark had to fill in.

Jackson continued as a solo artist, but she wanted the duo to continue and often asked Hildebrand to reconsider, to no avail. They reunited for a party in Brownwood in the '80s, but that's as far as it went. Hildebrand worked behind the scenes as a songwriter/producer, then left the business for a while.

He returned to music in 1983 as one half of the Christian music male duo Land & Hildebrand, who remained together into the new millennium. Hildebrand and Jackson, as Paul & Paula, are members of the West Texas Music Hall of Fame. Ray Hildebrand died on August 18, 2023, at the age of 82. ~ Andrew Hamilton