Hey, Hey Paula!

 

Ray, of Paul and Paula, is dead at 82

Ray Hildebrand, who was Paul of the sixties pop duo Paul and Paula, passed away last week in Kansas.

Paul and Paula were the stage names of Hildebrand and a college friend, Jill Jackson, who recorded the song that would make them famous in 1963. The real Paula was a girlfriend of Ray’s college buddy, Russell Berry. Ray, who wrote the song at his friend’s request, actually aimed it at his own ex-girlfriend Judy Hendricks. (It worked. He and Judy got back together and got married. She survives him.)

The initial recording on a small Texas label was titled “Hey Paula” by Ray and Jill. But when Mercury Records bought the rights, they changed the duo’s name to Paul and Paula.

The first time "Hey Paula" appeared on the record charts, in January 1963.

Cut to Kingsport, Tennessee in 1963. There was a girl in my Latin class named Paula, Paula Bennett, the only girl I knew at the time named Paula.  

And to this day, I never hear that song without thinking of Paula Bennett. It’s an easy association. She was a friend then, she’s a friend now. I’ve always begun letters, emails and phone calls to her with “Hey, hey Paula,” the first line of the song. Very clever, I know.

Girl-name songs aren’t as popular as they once were. I can name a dozen girl-name songs from my youth without even trying: “Barbara Ann,” “Gloria,” “Denise,” “Sherry,” “Donna,” “Peggy Sue,” “Suzy Q,” “Hello, Mary Lou,” “Linda,” “Michelle,” “Oh Carol” and “Sheila.” Girl name songs were still popular in the eighties and nineties with “Rosanna,” “Roxanne” and others.

But I had to search hard in a list of recent hits to come up with three and they are a stretch: “Stacy’s Mom,” “Jenny from the Block” and “Angel.”

In fact I found more songs with “me” in the title (17) than with a girl’s name.

But I wondered, as I listened to Paul promise, “Paula, I can’t wait no more for you,” how did Paula Bennett felt about that song? What was it like to hear your name on the radio all the time? Even in a lyric with a double negative?

So I asked her. Paula, now Paula Bennett-Paddick, lives now in western North Carolina.

“How could I not like a song with my name prominently featured?  It made me feel special, especially with a cute guy crooning, ‘I want to marry you.’ All love and tenderness. It was fun being teased and it did make me feel popular as long as the song lasted on the top ten.  However, we all know fame is fleeting.”

That’s right. “Hey Paula” was number one on the charts for the first three weeks of February 1963. But by summer the teen idols were singing about Denise and Judy.  Paula’s days on the radio, except as a moldy oldie, were over. 

And she says she didn’t see much chance of anyone writing a song with her middle name, Edwina. “I think I'll leave the earth before that happens.”

Boy songwriters have always written about the girls in their lives. But the other way around, not so much. There are a handful of songs with boy’s names: “Johnny Angel,” “Eddie, My Love,” “Jimmie Mack,” and a few others.

But there was never a Vince song. Okay, there was Don McLean‘s “Vincent” but that’s about a tortured fellow who cuts off his own ear. And who wants to be associated with that?

OTHER NAMES, OTHER TUNES

After my original 2004 column about Paula and “Hey Paula,” I heard from other girls named in songs.

Susan Z. Barnes said, “The 70's group the Buckinghams did a song ‘Susan’ which is my name. You did mention ‘Suzy Q’ and ‘Wake Up Little Susie.’  I always enjoyed those songs, but my name wasn't Suzy or Susie, it has always been Susan. I remember the first time I heard ‘Susan,’ I thought, ‘Finally, I made it.’”

Sherry Fouch said she liked having her name in a song. “I have a name that was not once, but twice the name of a song. You mentioned one in your article, ‘Sherry.’ And it was spelled correctly I might add. The second time my name graced a song was by Steve Perry, ‘Oh Sherri.’ Not spelled correctly by my standards, by why quibble over details.  Every time I hear these songs, I always stop and sing along. It makes me smile.”

Sara McClanahan Selby also had the name spelling issue. “My first name is Sara with no ‘h,’ which I have always thought to be the uncommon way to spell it. I was a teenager in the late 70's and early 80's and in that time period there was not one, but three songs with my name in the title: ‘Sara’ by Fleetwood Mac, ‘Sara’ by Jefferson Starship and ‘Sara Smile’ by Hall and Oates.  I always thought that it was neat, but a bit odd that not only did the songs have my name, but the correct spelling as well!”

Sue Parham recalled the experience of being serenaded in the Everly Brothers’ 1957 hit “Wake Up Little Suzie.” “I was in grad school and as I would go over for breakfast a fellow student would sing to me, ‘Wake up little Suzie, wake up!’  I was not an early riser and it was hard for me to get up for breakfast.  To make it even worse we had work duties - sometimes that was to serve breakfast. Oh, that was really hard for me! Then he would go through the breakfast line and see me serving and for sure he'd sing ‘Wake up little Suzie, wake up!’  Of course I still get the Suzie-Q songs, even from some of my fellow classmates at D-B when I am back in Kingsport.” Sue now lives in Richmond, Virginia.

Laura White, whose name was used in Ray Peterson’s 1960 hit “Tell Laura I Love Her,” remembered the first time she heard someone singing it.  “It was one of my girlfriends, and we were riding our bikes around the Greenfields area where I lived and had been talking about boyfriends. Then she started signing, ‘Tell Laura I love her.’  I thought she was teasing me by pretending to be a boyfriend. It was kind of strange then when I heard it on the radio.  Of course, during the time it was popular, people would tease me and sing the first line.  It was fun for a while, but then it got a little old after a while.” 

Being named in a song isn’t always a pleasant experience. Nikki Cristy told me, “Unfortunately, the only song with my name featured prominently was ‘Darling Nikki.’ Although I like Prince, I didn't like the reputation that ‘Nikki’ had in the song.”

For those unfamiliar with the song, Prince calls Darling Nikki a “sex fiend.”

 The Real Paula

As for the real Paula from the song: Her name was Paula Rowlette and on Thursday March 21, 1963, the Kingsport News’ People of the News column reported, “Paula Rowlette, subject of the hit song ‘Hey Paula,’ will be married Saturday in Fort Worth, Texas to Russell Berry who urged a friend to write the song after a spat.”

“Hey, Paula” worked twice – for Ray Hildebrand and also for his friend Russell Berry.

Paula Rowlette Berry died in 2021. Her obituary didn’t mention that a long time ago she was the famous inspiration for a song.

She is survived by Russell Berry.