Between Saturday and Sunday, I listened to Buddy Holly's three-disc Memorial Collection. This morning I got thinking about "Fool's Paradise," and I realized that there are some melodic phrases that mirror the lyrics. The "up to Heaven" in the first line is sung to an ascending phrase (F, G, A, C), and the "love came tumblin' down" in the bridge is sung to a descending phrase (D, C, Bb, Bb, A, G).
In figuring out the vocal melody and the guitar chords, I found two other things about the bridge. First, the interval between the two syllables of "The whole" in the line "The whole world was my kingdom" is a sixth (F to D), which suggests the vastness of the singer/speaker's "kingdom." Second, there's a G major chord under the line "Then I saw you glance at a new romance." The song is in F major, so the B note in that G major is an accidental (normally, it would be a Bb, making it a G minor chord), which musically represents the novelty of the "new romance."
