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.

"Hey Paula" sold over two million copies globally, and was awarded a gold disc by the Recording Industry Association of America in 1963.

In 1963, American Bandstand signed Paul & Paula to Dick Clark's Caravan of Stars national U.S. tour, which was scheduled to perform its fifteenth show on the night of November 22, 1963, at the Memorial Auditorium in Dallas, Texas, until the event was cancelled after President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas that afternoon.

[6][7] In 1965, Hildebrand left the act to complete his college education, having decided that a future in show business was not for him.

[10] In 2002, Hildebrand and Jackson returned to Howard Payne University in Brownwood, Texas,[11] where they were the homecoming guests of honor and grand marshals.