I remember it all very well lookin' 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 dancin' dress

Mama washed and combed and curled my hair
And she painted my eyes and lips
Then I stepped into a satin dancin' dress
That had a split from the side clean up to my hips
It was red velvet trimmin' and it fit me good
Standin' back from the lookin' 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
Then she kissed my cheek
And then I saw the tears wellin' 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'd off, 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 heel shoe
It sounded like somebody else that was talkin'
Askin' 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 it's up to you
Don't let me down now your Mama's gonna move you uptown

That was the last time I saw my Mama
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
It wasn't very long 'til I knew exactly
What my Mama been talkin' about

I knew what I had to do
And I made myself this solemn vow
I was gonna be a lady someday
Though I didn't know when or how
But I couldn't see spendin' the rest of my life
With my head hung down in shame
You know I might have 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 very long after a benevolent man
Took me in off the streets
One week later I was pourin' his tea
In a five room hotel suite
(Yes she was)

I charmed a king, a congressman
And an occasional aristocrat
And then I got me a Georgia mansion
And an elegant New York townhouse flat
And I ain't gone back
(She ain't gone back)

Now in this world there's a lot of self-righteous hypocrites
That'd call me bad (bad)
And criticize Mama for turning me out
No matter how little we had

But though I ain't had to worry 'bout nothin'
For nigh on fifteen years
I can still hear the desperation in my poor
Mama's voice ringin' in my ear

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 it's up to you
Don't let me down, hon
Mama's gonna move you uptown

Oh, and I guess she did