#1.
Well, I remember it all very well lookin’ back..
it was the summer that I turned eighteen.
We lived in a one-room, run down shack on the
outskirts of New Orleans.
We didn’t have money for food or rent..to say
the least we was hard-pressed..
when momma spent every last penny we had to buy

me a dancin’ dress.

#2.
Momma washed and combed and curled my hair..
then she painted my eyes and lips.
Then I stepped into the satin dancin’ dress..it had
a split in the side, clean up to my hip.
It was red, velvet-trimmed and it fit me good.
And standin’ back from the lookin’ glass was a woman
where a half-growed kid had stood.

CHORUS:
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, your momma’s gonna you move uptown.

#3.
Momma dabbed a little bit of perfume on my neck and she
kissed my cheek.
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 runned off
and I’m real sick and the baby’s gonna starve to death.

#4.
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 was talkin’ askin’, Momma what
do I do?
She said, just be nice to the gentlemen, Fancy, they’ll be nice
to you.

CHORUS:
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.
Get up, now, girl, you best be movin’ uptown.

#5.
Well, that was the last time I saw my momma, when I left that rickety

shack.
The welfare people came and took the baby, momma died and I ain’t

been back.
But the wheels of fate had started to turn and for me there was

no other way out.
It wasn’t very long after, that I knew exactly what my momma was

talkin’ ‘bout.

#6.
I knew what I had to do, but I made myself this solemn vow..
that I was gonna to 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.
I mighta been born just plain white trash but Fancy was my name.

CHORUS:
Here’s your one chance, Fancy, don’t let me down.
Here’s your one chance, Fancy, don’t let me down.

#7.
It wasn’t long after that a benevolent man took me in off the streets.
One week later I was pourin’ his tea in a five roomed penthouse suite.
I’ve charmed a king, a congressman and an occasional aristocrat.
And I got me a Georgia mansion and a New York townhouse flat..
now, I ain’t done bad.

#8.
Now, in this world there’s a lot of self-righteous hypocrites who call
me bad.
They criticize momma for turning me out, no matter how little we had.
But I haven’t had to worry ‘bout nothin’, now for nigh on fifteen years.
But I can still hear the desperation in my poor momma’s voice ringin’ in
my ears.

CHORUS:
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, your momma’s gonna help you move uptown.

(And I guess she did.)

OUTRO: E G A E..E G A E..(Fade.)