"When the Lovelight Starts Shining through Her Eyes"

Yester-day I happened to think of "When the Lovelight Starts Shining through Her Eyes," and I realized that there's a significance to the melisma with which "by" in the line "But I just passed her by" is sung.  Instead of a single note, it's sung to three (F# E C#, I think), so there's a musical representation of that movement ("pass[ing]... by").