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

And then I stepped into my satin dancin' dress

It was split on the side, clean up to my hips

Well, it was red, velvet-trimmed and it fit me good

And starin' back from the lookin' glass

Was a woman where a half-grown kid had stood

"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 (Please)

But if you want out, well, it's up to you

Now don't let me down, your mama's gonna help you move uptown"

And Mama dabbed a little bit of perfume

On my neck, and she kissed my cheek

Then I saw the tears well up

In her troubled eyes when she started to speak

She looked at our pitiful shack, and then

She looked at me and took a ragged breath

"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 talkin'

Askin', "Mama, what do I do?"

"And just be nice to the gentlemen, Fancy

And they'll be nice to you"

"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 get on out, girl, you better start movin' uptown"

Well, that was the last time I saw my mama

When I left that rickety shack

'Cause 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 till I knew exactly

What my mama'd been talkin' about

I did what I had to do, but I made myself a solemn vow

That I was gonna be a lady someday, though I didn't know when or how

I couldn't see spending the rest of my life with my head hung down in shame

I mighta been born just plain "white trash"

But Fancy was my name

"Here's your one chance, Fancy, don't let me down

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 pourin' his tea

In a five-room hotel suite (Yes, she was)

Well, I've charmed a king, a congressman

And an occasional aristocrat

And I got me a Georgia mansion

And an elegant New York townhouse flat

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

No

Now in this world, there's a lot of self-righteous

Hypocrites that would call me "bad"

And criticize my Mama for turnin' me out

No matter how little we had

And though I ain't had to worry 'bout nothing

For now on fifteen years

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

Here's your one chance, Fancy, don't let me down"

"Lord, forgive me for what I do (Please)

But if you want out, well, it's up to you

Now don't let me down, your mama's gonna help you move uptown"

And I guess she did