I remember it all very well, looking back, it was the summer I turned 18
We lived in a one-room run down the 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
Well, Mama washed and combed and curled my hair, then she painted my eyes and lips
Then I stepped into a satin dancing dress, I had a split from the side and cleaned up to my hips
It was red velvet trimming and it fit me good
Standing back from the looking-glass stairs stood a woman wore a half-grown kid, it stood
She said, here's your one chance, baby
If you don't let me down
She said, here's your one chance, but if you don't let me down
Mama got a little bit of perfume on my neck, 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 her pitiful shack and then she looked at me and took a ragged breath
She said, your paws run doff and I'm real sick and the baby's gonna starve to death
She handed me a heart
She blocked it
She said, that I don't self-betrue
And I shivered as I watched a roach crawl across the toe of my high-heeled shield
It sounded like somebody else was talking, asking, Mama, what do I do?
She said, just be nice to the gentleman 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 won't have what 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 mother
And I'd have 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 started to turn
And for me, there was no way out
It wasn't very long till I knew exactly what my mama been talking about
I knew what I had to do
And I made myself this solemn vow
I knew what I had to do

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 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 pouring his tea in a five-room hotel suite
I turned a king, a congressman and an occasional aristocrat
And then I got me a Georgia mansion and a delicate New York townhouse flat
And I ain't been back
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
She said, here's your one chance, fancy, don't let me down
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 now or fifteen years
Well I can still hear the desperation in my bones
Oh, 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
Whatever you want to have when it's up to you
Now don't let me down, honey, mama's gonna move you uptown
Well, I guess she did
She said, she said fancy words to my name
She said, she said fancy words to my name
Oh, she said, she said fancy words to my name
She said, and I guess she did
She said, she said fancy words to my name
She said, she said, she said fancy words to my name
Oh, and I guess she did
She said, she said fancy words to my name
She said, she said, she said fancy words to my name
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