"Fool (If You Think It's Over)" is a song written and originally released in 1978 by English singer-songwriter
Chris Rea
Christopher Anton Rea ( ; born 4 March 1951) is a British Rock music, rock and blues singer-songwriter and guitarist from Middlesbrough. Known for his distinctive voice and his slide guitar playing, Rea has recorded twenty-five studio albums, ...
. It appears on his debut album, ''
Whatever Happened to Benny Santini?'', and peaked at number 12 in the US, becoming his highest charting single there. The single's charting success in the US earned him a
Grammy
The Grammy Awards, stylized as GRAMMY, and often referred to as The Grammys, are awards presented by The Recording Academy of the United States to recognize outstanding achievements in music. They are regarded by many as the most prestigious a ...
nomination as
Best New Artist
The Grammy Award for Best New Artist has been awarded since the 2nd Annual Grammy Awards in 1960 (except in 1967) "for a new artist who releases, during the Eligibility Year, the first recording which establishes the public identity of that ar ...
in 1979.
Background
"Fool (If You Think It's Over)" was the lead single from Rea's debut album ''Whatever Happened to Benny Santini?'' which was recorded at producer
Gus Dudgeon
Angus Boyd "Gus" Dudgeon (30 September 1942 – 21 July 2002) was an English record producer, who oversaw many of Elton John's most acclaimed recordings, including his commercial breakthrough, " Your Song". Their collaboration led to seven US N ...
's
Thames Valley
The Thames Valley is an area in South East England that extends along the River Thames west of London towards Oxford. The area is a major tourist destination and economic hub on the M4 corridor, with a high concentration of technology companies ...
recording studio
The Mill. The song's inspiration was the experience Rea's younger sister Paula had encountered some years previously of being devastated at losing her first boyfriend.
Rea wrote "Fool" intending that it be recorded by
Al Green
Albert Leornes Greene (born April 13, 1946), known professionally as Al Green, is an American singer, songwriter, pastor and record producer. He is best known for recording a series of soul hit singles in the early 1970s, including " Tired of ...
. He intended it to be a
Memphis blues
The Memphis blues is a style of blues music created from the 1910s to the 1930s by musicians in the Memphis area, such as Frank Stokes, Sleepy John Estes, Furry Lewis and Memphis Minnie. The style was popular in vaudeville and medicine sho ...
song,
but according to Rea, "It ended up being this huge
California
California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...
thing. It’s the only track I never played guitar on which tells you something about the spirit of it. On top of that, it was just a huge hit. So there was nothing I could do. It was like: 'This is not me! Rea played keyboards on "Fool" with the track's background vocals provided by Rea and the Mill's assistant engineer
Stuart Epps.
The song, written in the key of
G major
G major is a major scale based on G (musical note), G, with the pitches G, A (musical note), A, B (musical note), B, C (musical note), C, D (musical note), D, E (musical note), E, and F♯ (musical note), F. Its key signature has one sharp (music ...
, uses the
ii–V–I turnaround, common in jazz and R&B.
Unsuccessful in its initial UK
single release in March 1978, "Fool" was afforded a June 1978 release in the US where it entered the
Top 40
In the music industry, the Top 40 is a list of the 40 currently most popular songs in a particular genre. It is the best-selling or most frequently broadcast popular music. Record charts have traditionally consisted of a total of 40 songs. "To ...
of the
Hot 100
The ''Billboard'' Hot 100, also known as simply the Hot 100, is the music industry standard record chart in the United States for songs, published weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine. Chart rankings are based on sales (physical and digital), o ...
singles chart in ''
Billboard
A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertis ...
'' magazine in July 1978 to reach a #12 peak on the Hot 100 dated 16 September 1978,
then being in the second week of a three-week tenure at #1 on the ''Billboard''
Easy Listening chart
The Adult Contemporary chart is published weekly by ''Billboard (magazine), Billboard'' magazine and lists the most popular songs on adult contemporary music, adult contemporary radio stations in the United States. The chart is compiled based on ...
. On the strength of its US success Rea was invited to perform "Fool" on the 28 September 1978 ''
TOTP'' broadcast which facilitated a belated UK chart run for the single with a 28 October 1978 peak of #30.
Rea recalled, during the 1978 Yuletide overnight drive home from London, considering abandoning what he saw as his failing singing career to fall back on his family's established business of running a restaurant. However, when Rea and his wife Joan reached their Middlesbrough
Middlesbrough ( ), colloquially known as Boro, is a port town in the Borough of Middlesbrough, North Yorkshire, England. Lying to the south of the River Tees, Middlesbrough forms part of the Teesside Built up area, built-up area and the Tees Va ...
home in the early morning "we opened the door of the house we were just about to lose the mortgage on, and the snow fell into the hall and it didn’t melt – it was that cold – and there was one letter on the floor." The letter was accompanied by a substantial royalty cheque generated by "Fool", enabling Rea to buy a Ferrari 308 GT4. The journey inspired his later hit " Driving Home for Christmas".
Rea would remake "Fool (If You Think It's Over)" for his 1988 self-produced album '' New Light Through Old Windows''. This version of "Fool" had a Dutch single release charting at #90. In 2007 Rea would again remake "Fool" in a session at The Mill – now known as Sol Studios – where the original had been recorded. Rea produced and played all instruments on the track, which was included on his 2008 European CD release ''Fool If You Think It's Over (The Definitive Greatest Hits)''.
The music journalist Wayne Jacik mentioned the single in his work ''Billboard Book of One-Hit Wonders
A one-hit wonder is any entity that achieves mainstream popularity, often for only one piece of work, and becomes known among the general public solely for that momentary success. The term is most commonly used in regard to music performers with ...
''.
Chart performance (Chris Rea)
Covers
Elkie Brooks version
In 1982 Elkie Brooks
Elkie Brooks (born Elaine Bookbinder; 25 February 1945) is an English Rock music, rock, blues and jazz singer. She was a vocalist with the bands Dada and Vinegar Joe (band), Vinegar Joe, and later became a solo artist. She gained her biggest su ...
had a Top 20 hit in the UK and South Africa with her remake, titled "Fool If You Think It's Over", which like the Chris Rea original was produced by Gus Dudgeon
Angus Boyd "Gus" Dudgeon (30 September 1942 – 21 July 2002) was an English record producer, who oversaw many of Elton John's most acclaimed recordings, including his commercial breakthrough, " Your Song". Their collaboration led to seven US N ...
and recorded at the Mill. Brooks' version was one of eight tracks recorded with Dudgeon in 1980 for her 1981 twelve-track album release ''Pearls
A pearl is a hard, glistening object produced within the soft tissue (specifically the mantle (mollusc), mantle) of a living Exoskeleton, shelled mollusk or another animal, such as fossil conulariids. Just like the shell of a mollusk, a pear ...
'', which also includes four of Brooks' previous hit singles. Brooks said, "Most of 'Pearls newmaterial had been chosen by &M execDerek Green or Gus Dudgeon. I had insisted that we did ic'Fool'. Chris Rea has always been one of my favourite musicians and writers and I thought the song was pure class."
Brooks' version of "Fool" was issued as a single in December 1981 when ''Pearls'', issued the previous month, was in the Top Ten of the UK album chart. Three advance singles had been issued off the album since July 1980 without charting. "Fool" rose to a number 17 peak on the UK chart dated 27 February 1982, assisted by two '' TOTP'' performances by Brooks, one of which was re-run. After taping her 11 February 1982 ''TOTP'' performance of "Fool", Brooks was approached backstage by a fan, who Brooks soon realised was in fact Chris Rea incognito, asking for her autograph. In Ireland, "Fool" became Brooks' highest-charting single with a number six chart peak.
In a 2014 pre-concert interview Brooks, when asked what "big numbers" she looked forward to singing, replied: "I still really like ' Don't Cry Out Loud', ' Sunshine After the Rain' and of course 'Fool If You Think It's Over': that is a terrific song."
"Fool If You Think It's Over" by Elkie Brooks was the first track played on Radio Caroline
Radio Caroline is a British radio station founded in 1964 by Ronan O'Rahilly and Allan Crawford, initially to circumvent the record companies' control of popular music broadcasting in the United Kingdom and the BBC's radio broadcasting monopol ...
when the station resumed broadcasting at 10 a.m. 20 August 1983 after a down period of 41 months.
Chart history
Other versions
Thomas Anders
Bernd Weidung (born 1 March 1963), known by his stage name Thomas Anders, is a German singer, songwriter and record producer.
He is best known as the vocalist of the former pop duo Modern Talking.
Starting his singing career while still in sc ...
remade "Fool (If You Think It's Over)" for his 1989 album release '' Different''. This version was the third produced by Gus Dudgeon. The song served as the theme to the 1990s British sitcom '' Joking Apart''. Kenny Craddock arranged and performed this version.
See also
*List of number-one adult contemporary singles of 1978 (U.S.)
In 1978, ''Billboard (magazine), Billboard'' magazine published a record chart, chart ranking the top-performing songs in the United States in the easy listening or middle of the road (music), middle of the road market. The chart, which in 1978 ...
References
External links
* Song reviewby Mike DeGagne at Allmusic
AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...
List of cover versions of "Fool (If You Think It's Over)"
*
{{Authority control
1978 songs
1978 singles
1970s ballads
1981 singles
1988 singles
A&M Records singles
Chris Rea songs
Elkie Brooks songs
Magnet Records singles
Rock ballads
Song recordings produced by Gus Dudgeon
Songs written by Chris Rea
United Artists Records singles