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 Well, 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 on the side clean up to my hip It was red velvet trim 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 runned 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 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 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 mama That 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 'til I knew exactly What my mama been talkin' about I knew what I had to do And I made myself this solemn vow That I's gonna be a lady someday Though I don'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 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 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 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 done bad Now in this world there's a lot of self-righteous hypocrits That would call me 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 Well I can still hear the desperation in my poor mama's voice Ringin' 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 hun your mama's gonna move you uptown" Oh and I guess she did