Fancy - Reba McEntire

I remember it all very well looking back

It was the summer I turned eighteen

We lived in a one room, rundown shack

On the outskirts of New Orleans

We didn’t have money for food or rent

To say the least we were hard pressed

Then mama spent every last penny we had

To buy me a dancing dress

Mama washed and combed and curled my hair

And she painted my eyes and lips

Then I stepped into a satin dancing dress

That had a split on the side clean up to my hip

It was red velvet trim and it fit me good

Standing back from the looking glass

There stood a woman where a half grown kid had stood

She said, «Here's your one chance Fancy, don’t let me down»

She said, «Here's your one chance Fancy, don’t let me down»

Mama dabbed a little bit of perfume on my neck

And then she kissed my cheek

And then I saw the tears welling up in her troubled eyes

As she started to speak

She looked at our pitiful shack

And then she looked at me and took a ragged breath

She said, «Your Pa’s run off and I’m real sick

And the baby’s gonna starve to death»

She handed me a heart shaped locket that said

«To thine own self be true»

And I shivered as I watched a roach crawl

Across the toe of my high heeled shoe

It sounded like somebody else that was talking

Asking mama, «What do I do?»

She said, «Just be nice to the gentlemen, Fancy

They’ll be nice to you»

She said, «Here's your one chance Fancy, don’t let me down»

«Here's your one chance Fancy, don’t let me down»

Lord, forgive me for what I do

But if you want out

Well, it’s up to you

Now don’t let me down now

Your mama’s gonna move you uptown

Well, that was the last time I saw my Ma

The night I left that rickety shack

The welfare people came and took the baby

Mama died and I ain’t been back

But the wheels of fate had started to turn

And for me there was no way out

And it wasn’t very long until I knew exactly

What my Mama had been talking about

I knew what I had to do and I made myself this solemn vow

That I was going to be a lady someday

Though I didn’t know when or how

But I couldn’t see spending the rest of my life

With my head hung down in shame

You know I might’ve been born just plain white trash

But Fancy was my name

She said, «Here's your one chance Fancy, don’t let me down»

She said, «Here's your one chance Fancy, don’t let me down»

It wasn’t long after a benevolent man took me in off the streets

And one week later I was pouring his tea in a five room hotel suite (Yes,

she was)

I charmed a king, congressman and an occasional aristocrat

Then I got me a Georgia mansion

And an elegant New York townhouse flat

And I ain’t done bad (She ain’t done bad)

Now in this world there’s a lot of self-righteous hypocrites

That call me bad

And criticize Mama for turning me out

No matter how little we had

But though I ain’t had to worry about nothing

For nigh on fifteen years

Well, I can still hear the desperation in my poor

Mama’s voice ringing in my ears

«Here's your one chance Fancy, don’t let me down»

«Oh, here’s your one chance Fancy, don’t let me down»

Lord, forgive me for what I do

But if you want out

Well, it’s up to you

Now don’t let me down, honey

Mama’s gonna move you uptown

And I guess she did