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Hey Paula (song)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| “Hey Paula” | |
|---|---|
| Single by Paul & Paula | |
| B-side | “Bobby Is the One” |
| Released | 1962 |
| Recorded | 1962 |
| Genre | Pop |
| Length | 2:27 |
| Label | Le Cam, Philips (US) Sparton (Canada) |
| Songwriter(s) | Ray Hildebrand |
| Producer(s) | Major Bill Smith, Marvin “Smokey” Montgomery |
| Paul & Paula singles chronology | |
| “Hey Paula“ (1962)”Young Lovers“ (1963) | |
“Hey Paula” is an American pop standard love song recorded by the singing duo Paul & Paula. It hit number one on the Billboard Hot 100 on the week ending February 9, 1963, and also made it to number one on the Hot R&B Singles chart. “Paul” was the song’s writer, Ray Hildebrand, a student at Texas‘ Howard Payne University, a Baptist institution in the city of Brownwood. “Paula” was Jill Jackson, the niece of the owner of the boarding house where Ray lived.
Writing and recording
Hildebrand wrote the song, originally titled “Paul and Paula”, taking inspiration from the Annette Funicello hit “Tall Paul“.
Hildebrand and Jackson performed the song on a local radio station and the song soon became popular enough for the duo to try to make a professional recording. They went to a studio in Fort Worth, Texas, and were fortunate enough to find a producer, Major Bill Smith, with studio time and musicians booked and a missing lead vocalist. He recorded their version of the song and released it on his Le Cam Records label, changing the name to “Hey Paula”, credited to “Jill & Ray”. When the record became a success, it was picked up by the larger Philips Records, which changed the billing to Paul and Paula. Musicians on the recording included Marvin Montgomery on guitar, Guy Parnell on bass, Hargus Robbins on organ, Little Caesar on piano, and Ronnie Dawson on drums.
Success
When the song was released on Philips, it hit the national charts in late 1962, reaching number one on both the pop and R&B charts in 1963. It spawned a follow-up top ten hit, “Young Lovers“, and a series of other hits for the duo.
- Paul & Paula – Ba Hey Be
- Paul & Paula – First Quarrel
- Paul & Paula – School Is Thru
- Paul & Paula – Something Old, Something New
- Paul & Paula – Flipped over You
- Paul & Paula – First Day Back at School
- Paul & Paula – A Perfect Pair
- Paul & Paula – Holiday Hootenanny
- Paul & Paula – Holiday For Teens
- Paul & Paula – We’ll Never Break up for Good
- Paul & Paula – Crazy Little Things
- Paul & Paula – The Young Years
- Paul & Paula – Dear Paula
- Paul & Paula – All the Love
- Paul & Paula – The Beginning of Love
- Paul & Paula – Moments Like This
- Paul & Paula – We Two Forever Shall Be One
- Paul & Paula – My Happiness
- Paul & Paula – Pledging My Love
- Paul & Paula – Love Comes Once
- Paul & Paula – Come Softly to Me
- Paul & Paula – We Go Together
- Paul & Paula – You Send Me
- Paul & Paula – Hey Baby
- Paul & Paula – Blue Roller Rink
- Paul & Paula – Gee Baby
- Paul & Paula – Two People In the World
- Paul & Paula – All the Love
- Paul & Paula – Sweet Baby
- Paul & Paula – Don’t Let It End
Chart performance
All-time charts
| Chart (1958–2018) | Position |
|---|---|
| US Billboard Hot 100 | 528 |
Cover versions
- Australian personalities Ernie Sigley and Denise Drysdale scored a hit with the song in 1974. It was certified gold in Australia in October 1974. It was the 28th biggest selling single in Australia in 1974.
- Tim Whitnall and Dee-Anne perform – Hey Paula
- Alice Iskak & Ireng Maulana – Hey Paula
- Dave Monk – Hey Paula
- Hey Paula played on guitar by Eric
- Grayhounds – Hey Paula
- Arturo y Vianey – Hey Paula
Popular culture
- Boon (Peter Riegert) and Katy (Karen Allen) sang it to each other while high in the movie, National Lampoon’s Animal House from 1978.
- Eric Forman (Topher Grace) sang the song to his girlfriend Donna Pinciotti (Laura Prepon) during a friend’s party in That 70s Show.
Paul & Paula (Ray Hildebrand, born December 21, 1940, and Jill Jackson, born May 20, 1942) are a former American pop singing duo, best known for their 1963 million-selling, number-one hit record, “Hey Paula“.
Biography
Hildebrand was born in Joshua, Texas, and Jackson in McCamey, Texas. Both were attending Howard Payne College (now called Howard Payne University) in Brownwood, Texas, in 1962, when a local disc jockey, Riney Jordan, of station KEAN, asked listeners to come to the studio and sing their songs to help the American Cancer Society. The duo sang a song called “Hey Paula,” which Hildebrand wrote; the lyrics were inspired by a friend of his, Russell Berry, whose fiancée was named Paula. Jordan decided that Hildebrand and Jackson should record the song, and they did.
Shelby Singleton of Philips Records eventually signed the two, but not before changing their professional names (Singleton reasoned that a pair named Ray and Jill singing about “Hey, hey Paula” and “Hey, hey Paul” did not make sense). “Hey Paula” sold over two million copies globally, and was awarded a gold disc by the Recording Industry Association of America in 1963.
The duo released two regular albums and a Christmas-themed album after the success of “Hey Paula”, which charted at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 for the entire month of February 1963. Their follow-up, “Young Lovers“, reached number six on the Billboard chart later in the same year.
In 1963, American Bandstand signed Paul & Paula to Dick Clark‘s Caravan of Stars national U.S. tour, which was scheduled to perform its 15th show on the night of November 22, 1963, at the Memorial Auditorium in Dallas, until suddenly the Friday evening event had to be cancelled after U.S. President John F. Kennedy was assassinated that afternoon.
In 1965, Hildebrand left the act to complete his college education, having decided that a future in show business was not for him. He made this decision in the middle of another Dick Clark Caravan of Stars road trip, and Clark had to fill in at the last minute. Hildebrand recorded a Christian music album in 1967 called He’s Everything to Me.
He became best-known among Christian music fans for his 1970s hit song “Anybody Here Wanna Live Forever?” Subsequently, Hildebrand joined up with another Christian performer, Paul Land, and during the 1980s and 1990s, they performed comedy and Christian music under the name of Land & Hildebrand.
Jackson went on with a solo career, and then married a Los Angeles businessman named Marvin Landon. Since their days as a singing duo, Jill and Ray have remained friends, and well into the early 2000s, they occasionally would get together to sing as Paul & Paula for special events, such as oldies shows. In 2002, Hildebrand and Jackson returned to Howard Payne University in Brownwood, TX, where they were the homecoming guests of honor and grand marshals.
Discography
Albums
| Year | Title | Details | Peak chartpositions |
|---|---|---|---|
| US | |||
| 1963 | Paul & Paula Sing for Young Lovers | Released: February 1963Label: Philips | — |
| We’ll Go Together | Released: July 1963Label: Philips | 99 | |
| Holiday for Teens | Released: September 1963Label: Philips | — | |
| 1995 | Hey Paula – The Best of Paul & Paula | Released: October 1995Label: K-tel | — |
| 1999 | Greatest Hits | Released: September 1999Label: Stardust | — |
| “—” denotes releases that did not chart. | |||
Singles
| Year | Title | Peak chart positions | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US [11][12] | US R&B [13] | AUS [14] | BE (FLA) [15] | BE (WA) [16] | CAN [17][18][19][20] | GER [21] | IRE [22] | NOR [23] | NZ [24] | SWE [25] | UK [26] | ||
| 1962 | “Hey Paula” (orig. under their own names, Jill & Ray) b/w “Bobby Is the One” | 1 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 18 | 1 | 16 | — | 2 | 1 | 1 | 8 |
| 1963 | “Young Lovers“ b/w “Ba-Hey-Be” | 6 | 14 | 20 | 18 | 39 | 9 | 42 | 10 | 7 | — | — | 9 |
| “First Quarrel” b/w “School Is Thru” | 27 | — | 70 | — | — | 10 | — | — | — | — | — | — | |
| “Something Old, Something New” b/w “Flipped Over You” | 77 108 | — | — 19 | — | — | 22 | — | — | — | — | — | — | |
| “First Day Back at School” b/w “A Perfect Pair” | 60 105 | — | 85 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | |
| “Holiday Hootenanny” b/w “Holiday for Teens” | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | |
| 1964 | “We’ll Never Break Up for Good” b/w “Crazy Little Things” | 105 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| “Darlin'” b/w “The Young Years” | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | |
| “No Other Right” b/w “Too Dark to See” | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | |
| 1965 | “True Love“ b/w “Any Way You Want Me (That’s How I Will Be)“ | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| “Dear Paula” b/w “All the Love” | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | |
| 1966 | “All I Want Is You” b/w “The Beginning of Love” | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| 1968 | “All These Things“ b/w “Wedding” | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| 1970 | “Moments Like These” b/w “Mrs. Bean” | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| “—” denotes releases that did not chart or were not released in that territory. | |||||||||||||
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