Tribute to Ray Hildebrand, featuring Sheldon Zoldan

Everyday Creation

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Ray Hildebrand walked away from pop music success and became one of the early artists playing contemporary Christian music. His tribute is one of 44 short yet illuminating episodes about significant figures in the music industry who passed away in 2023.

Hildebrand was half of the pop singing duo Paul & Paula, and Jill Jackson was the other half. The two remained friends after Hildebrand moved on from pop. To hear their number 1 hit, "Hey, Paula," you can go to this video.
The image of the duo in the chapters is from the cover of Cash Box magazine in 1963. It's available on Wikimedia Commons.
Also in the chapters, you can go right to the tribute by skipping my intro; feel free to skip my closing remarks too. Both are there to provide context for those who haven't listened to the other tributes.
Hildebrand recorded a Christian music album in 1967 called "He's Everything to Me," and became best known among Christian music fans for his 1970s hit song "Anybody Here Wanna Live Forever?"
My guest Sheldon Zoldan, a longtime writer and newspaper editor, wrote these tributes and recorded them. He also writes Song of the Day, a music-related story sent daily to an email list of subscribers. To get on his subscriber list, email [e-mail] with the subject line ADD ME TO SOTD.
Audio engineer/musician Mike Villegas edited all the audio for this series. Hope you enjoy these intriguing glimpses into the lives of the people who made some of the music we love.

This is Kate Jones. Thank you for listening to my show, available on YouTube and in various podcast directories including Apple, Spotify and Audible.

Chapters

1. Tribute to Ray Hildebrand, featuring Sheldon Zoldan (00:00:00)

2. Tribute begins (00:00:36)