I want to marry you too.<\/em><\/p>\nThe popularity of \u201cHey Paula\u201d evolved slowly and then exploded. It began as a song that Mr. Hildebrand and Ms. Jackson sang on a 15-minute radio show she had in Brownwood, Texas, where they were both attending Howard Payne College (now University). The show\u2019s disc jockey told them that listeners loved the song, and suggested they record it.<\/p>\n
At a studio in Fort Worth, they cut a 45-r.p.m. record, and the song, released on the small Le Cam label, became a regional hit. Recognizing the song\u2019s potential, Mercury Records soon bought their contract and the recording and reissued it on its Philips label.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey changed our names,\u201d Mr. Hildebrand told Link, the Howard Payne magazine, in 2012. \u201cWe called the song \u2018Paul and Paula\u2019 by Jill and Ray, and they called it \u2018Hey Paula\u2019 by Paul and Paula, which is better marketing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Released in late 1962, \u201cHey Paula\u201d topped the Billboard Hot 100 chart in the second week of February 1963, displacing \u201cWalk Right In\u201d by the Rooftop Singers. It stayed in the No. 1 spot for three weeks. Paul and Paula\u2019s next single, \u201cYoung Lovers,\u201d peaked at No. 6 at the end of that April.<\/p>\n
They were on tour in England in the spring, when \u201cHey Paula\u201d rose to No. 8 on the Melody Maker chart and they met the Beatles in a BBC television studio.<\/p>\n
In June they sang \u201cFirst Quarrel\u201d on Dick Clark\u2019s \u201cAmerican Bandstand,\u201d and they later joined Mr. Clark\u2019s three-week musical caravan as part of a roster that also included Gene Pitney, Lou Christie, Bob B. Soxx & The Blue Jeans, the Crystals and Ruby and the Romantics.<\/p>\n
But when the Clark tour reached Cincinnati at the end of July, Mr. Hildebrand realized that he had had enough of the road. At the end of a show, he told Ms. Jackson that he was quitting the tour. He felt he was no longer in control of his life.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo at 5 o\u2019clock in the morning in Cincinnati, I wrote Dick Clark a note and slipped it under his door,\u201d he said at an event held two years ago by the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, a sports ministry, to which he devoted much of his life. \u201cI said, \u2018I\u2019m so sorry.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
For the rest of the tour, Mr. Hildebrand said in an interview with the website Classic Bands, Mr. Clark filled in for him on \u201cHey Paula.\u201d<\/p>\n
Once he was off the tour, Mr. Hildebrand started dating Miss Hendricks again. They married in early 1964 and stayed together until her death in 1999.<\/p>\n
Jill Jackson, who is now Jill Landon, said she supported Mr. Hildebrand\u2019s decision to leave the Clark caravan. \u201cIt was the right thing for him to do,\u201d she said by phone.<\/p>\n
She and Mr. Hildebrand released three albums in 1963. They continued to perform together occasionally for a while and, until recently, reunited at oldies shows and other events.<\/p>\n
Raymond Glenn Hildebrand was born on Nov. 21, 1940, in Joshua, Texas. His father, Walter, was a school principal; his mother, Alma (Wood) Hildebrand, was a teacher. After attending Navarro Junior College in Corsicana, Texas, he transferred to Howard Payne College on a basketball scholarship.<\/p>\n
In the summer of 1962, he got a job at the college\u2019s swimming pool and, to save money on housing, lived in the gymnasium. In the quiet of the gym, he started writing songs.<\/p>\n
He was asked by a teammate to write a song about his girlfriend, Paula. Another teammate listened to an early version of the song, which was told entirely by Paul, and suggested a change.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe said, \u2018You ought to let the girl sing back to the guy,\u2019\u201d Mr. Hildebrand recalled in the Link magazine interview. At first, he said, he thought the suggestion was ridiculous, but then he agreed to do it, turning the song into a conversation.<\/p>\n
After receiving his bachelor\u2019s degree in English in 1964, Mr. Hildebrand started a new career as a contemporary Christian singer and songwriter. He recorded albums under his own name and, starting in the 1980s, with a partner, Paul Land, in an act that mixed music with comedy.<\/p>\n
From 1967 to 1981, he was program director of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes at the organization\u2019s national office in Kansas City, Mo. It was mostly a musical job, writing songs with pop melodies and performing them at conferences and summer camps for young athletes. He continued to perform at Fellowship events for many years.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe brought a great deal of fun and laughter to the stage,\u201d Wayne Atcheson, a former assistant director of the organization, said in a phone interview. \u201cYou never knew what he would say to get a belly laugh.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr. Hildebrand was inducted into the Fellowship\u2019s Hall of Champions in 2003.<\/p>\n
He also worked as a television producer and a real estate appraiser.<\/p>\n
He is survived by his daughter, Heidi Sterling; his son, Michael; seven grandchildren; four great-grandchildren; and a brother, Steve.<\/p>\n
Looking back at \u201cHey Paula\u201d many years later, Mr. Hildebrand said he understood its appeal.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think one of the things \u2018Hey Paula\u2019 had was, it was like a couple dating over the air,\u201d he said in the Classic Bands interview. \u201cThey were singing back and forth to each other. You had your Steve and Eydies, but it was not in the teenage pizza-and-peanut-butter songs.\u201d<\/p>\n
He added: \u201cIt was marketable. It was cute.\u201d<\/p>\n
Richard Sandomir<\/span> is an obituaries writer. He previously wrote about sports media and sports business. He is also the author of several books, including “The Pride of the Yankees: Lou Gehrig, Gary Cooper and the Making of a Classic.” More about Richard Sandomir<\/span><\/p>\nSource: Read Full Article<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ray Hildebrand, whose recording with a friend, Jill Jackson, of a love song he wrote in college, \u201cHey Paula,\u201d became a No. 1 hit in 1963 and brought them instant fame as Paul and Paula, died on Aug. 18 at…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":66558,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n
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