Ray Hildebrand and Jill Jackson, both West Texans, discovered that securing a pop chart-topping single came without much effort. Enrolled as students at Howard Payne College, they responded to a request for volunteer performers at an American Cancer Society benefit and delivered “Hey Paula,” a song Hildebrand had written. The performance proved so effective that onlookers urged them to cut a record.
Late in 1962 the pair drove to Fort Worth, Texas, hoping for an unscheduled audition at LeCam Records, the label Major Bill Smith had just propelled to prominence with Bruce Channel. Smith was occupied with sessions that Saturday, yet they waited; when Amos Milburn, Jr. failed to appear, five musicians sat idle at five dollars each. Unwilling to waste the outlay, Smith invited Hildebrand and Jackson to audition their number and, after a short hearing, escorted them into the studio. The outcome quickly entered recording lore.
Smith first offered “Hey Paula” to Vee Jay Records, but Ewart Abner passed. The single therefore appeared on LeCam under the billing Jill & Ray. Once sales surged, Abner acknowledged the oversight and paired Jerry Butler with Betty Everett. Mercury’s Shelby Singleton noticed the strong sales and arranged a reissue on the Phillips subsidiary, though he first changed the artists’ name to Paul & Paula, observing that two performers called Jill & Ray could not credibly sing lines addressed to both Paula and Paul. The duo resented the alteration—West Texas audiences knew them as Jill & Ray—yet eventually accepted it.
Early in 1963 “Hey Paula” approached two million copies sold. Follow-up singles “Young Lovers” and “First Quarrel” appeared, together with two albums, one devoted to Christmas material. The original “Hey Paula” ran more than six minutes; Smith judged it too long, so Hildebrand fashioned the excised sections into “Young Lovers.”
The whirlwind success began to feel dreamlike, but by 1965 Hildebrand reconsidered. Road travel held no appeal, and he wished to finish college, mindful that both parents taught school. The breaking point occurred when he left Jackson stranded during a Dick Clark Caravan of Stars tour, obliging Clark to substitute.
Jackson continued alone yet kept pressing Hildebrand to resume the partnership, without result. They reunited for a single performance at a Brownwood party in the 1980s and never again. Hildebrand later worked behind the scenes as a songwriter and producer before stepping away from music for a period.
He reentered the field in 1983 as half of the Christian male duo Land & Hildebrand, which stayed active into the new millennium. As Paul & Paula, Hildebrand and Jackson were inducted into the West Texas Music Hall of Fame. Ray Hildebrand died on August 18, 2023, at the age of 82.
