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.

[10] 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.

[9][11] 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 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."

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).

[14] In 1982 Elkie Brooks 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 and recorded at the Mill.

[27] 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.

"[28] "Fool If You Think It's Over" by Elkie Brooks was the first track played on Radio Caroline when the station resumed broadcasting at 10 a.m. 20 August 1983 after a down period of 41 months.