Ray Hildebrand, whose recording with a pal, Jill Jackson, of a love music he wrote in faculty, “Hey Paula,” grew to become a No. 1 hit in 1963 and introduced them instantaneous fame as Paul and Paula, died on Aug. 18 at his dwelling in Overland Park, Kan. He was 82.

His son-in-law, Larry Sterling, stated the trigger was dementia.

“Hey Paula” was a candy, romantic ballad a couple of couple near marrying. Mr. Hildebrand had written it on the request of a pal whose girlfriend was named Paula, however the emotion behind it was for Judy Hendricks, a former girlfriend with whom Mr. Hildebrand wished to reunite.

The music is a musical dialog began by Mr. Hildebrand, who sings in, half:

Hey, hey, Paula.
I need to marry you.
Hey, hey, Paula.
Nobody else may ever do.

When Ms. Jackson solutions, she sings:

Hey, Paul.
I’ve been ready for you.
Hey, hey, hey Paul.
I need to marry you too.

The recognition of “Hey Paula” developed slowly after which exploded. It started as a music that Mr. Hildebrand and Ms. Jackson sang on a 15-minute radio present she had in Brownwood, Texas, the place they had been each attending Howard Payne School (now College). The present’s disc jockey informed them that listeners beloved the music, and instructed they document it.

At a studio in Fort Price, they minimize a 45-r.p.m. document, and the music, launched on the small Le Cam label, grew to become a regional hit. Recognizing the music’s potential, Mercury Data quickly purchased their contract and the recording and reissued it on its Philips label.

“They modified our names,” Mr. Hildebrand informed Hyperlink, the Howard Payne journal, in 2012. “We referred to as the music ‘Paul and Paula’ by Jill and Ray, they usually referred to as it ‘Hey Paula’ by Paul and Paula, which is healthier advertising and marketing.”

Launched in late 1962, “Hey Paula” topped the Billboard Scorching 100 chart within the second week of February 1963, displacing “Stroll Proper In” by the Rooftop Singers. It stayed within the No. 1 spot for 3 weeks. Paul and Paula’s subsequent single, “Younger Lovers,” peaked at No. 6 on the finish of that April.

They had been on tour in England within the spring, when “Hey Paula” rose to No. 8 on the Melody Maker chart they usually met the Beatles in a BBC tv studio.

In June they sang “First Quarrel” on Dick Clark’s “American Bandstand,” they usually later joined Mr. Clark’s three-week musical caravan as a part of a roster that additionally included Gene Pitney, Lou Christie, Bob B. Soxx & The Blue Denims, the Crystals and Ruby and the Romantics.

However when the Clark tour reached Cincinnati on the finish of July, Mr. Hildebrand realized that he had had sufficient of the highway. On the finish of a present, he informed Ms. Jackson that he was quitting the tour. He felt he was now not in charge of his life.

“So at 5 o’clock within the morning in Cincinnati, I wrote Dick Clark a word and slipped it beneath his door,” he stated at an occasion held two years in the past by the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, a sports activities ministry, to which he devoted a lot of his life. “I stated, ‘I’m so sorry.’”

For the remainder of the tour, Mr. Hildebrand stated in an interview with the web site Traditional Bands, Mr. Clark crammed in for him on “Hey Paula.”

As soon as he was off the tour, Mr. Hildebrand began courting Miss Hendricks once more. They married in early 1964 and stayed collectively till her dying in 1999.

Jill Jackson, who’s now Jill Landon, stated she supported Mr. Hildebrand’s resolution to depart the Clark caravan. “It was the proper factor for him to do,” she stated by telephone.

She and Mr. Hildebrand launched three albums in 1963. They continued to carry out collectively often for some time and, till just lately, reunited at oldies reveals and different occasions.

Raymond Glenn Hildebrand was born on Nov. 21, 1940, in Joshua, Texas. His father, Walter, was a faculty principal; his mom, Alma (Wooden) Hildebrand, was a instructor. After attending Navarro Junior School in Corsicana, Texas, he transferred to Howard Payne School on a basketball scholarship.

In the summertime of 1962, he received a job on the faculty’s swimming pool and, to save cash on housing, lived within the gymnasium. Within the quiet of the fitness center, he began writing songs.

He was requested by a teammate to write down a music about his girlfriend, Paula. One other teammate listened to an early model of the music, which was informed completely by Paul, and instructed a change.

“He stated, ‘You must let the lady sing again to the man,’” Mr. Hildebrand recalled within the Hyperlink journal interview. At first, he stated, he thought the suggestion was ridiculous, however then he agreed to do it, turning the music right into a dialog.

After receiving his bachelor’s diploma in English in 1964, Mr. Hildebrand began a brand new profession as a up to date Christian singer and songwriter. He recorded albums beneath his personal identify and, beginning within the Eighties, with a companion, Paul Land, in an act that blended music with comedy.

From 1967 to 1981, he was program director of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes on the group’s nationwide workplace in Kansas Metropolis, Mo. It was principally a musical job, writing songs with pop melodies and performing them at conferences and summer time camps for younger athletes. He continued to carry out at Fellowship occasions for a few years.

“He introduced an excessive amount of enjoyable and laughter to the stage,” Wayne Atcheson, a former assistant director of the group, stated in a telephone interview. “You by no means knew what he would say to get a stomach chortle.”

Mr. Hildebrand was inducted into the Fellowship’s Corridor of Champions in 2003.

He additionally labored as a tv producer and an actual property appraiser.

He’s survived by his daughter, Heidi Sterling; his son, Michael; seven grandchildren; 4 great-grandchildren; and a brother, Steve.

Trying again at “Hey Paula” a few years later, Mr. Hildebrand stated he understood its attraction.

“I believe one of many issues ‘Hey Paula’ had was, it was like a pair courting over the air,” he stated within the Traditional Bands interview. “They had been singing backwards and forwards to one another. You had your Steve and Eydies, however it was not within the teenage pizza-and-peanut-butter songs.”

He added: “It was marketable. It was cute.”