Bobbie Gentry Fancy Lyrics

Fancy Lyrics

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 were hard-pressed

when Momma spent every last penny we had

to buy me a dancin' dress.



Well, Momma washed and combed and curled my hair,

then she painted my eyes and lips.

Then I stepped into the satin dancin' dress.

It was split in the side clean up to my hips.



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.



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 girl it's up to you.

Now get on out, you better start sleepin' uptown."



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 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 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-healed 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."



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



Well, that was the last time I saw my momma

when I left that rickety shack

'Cause 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 'till I knew exactly

what my momma was talkin' 'bout.



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.



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.



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

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



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.



Since then 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.



Now I ain't done bad



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

hypocrites that would call me bad.

They criticize Momma for turning me out 

No matter how little we had.



And though I haven't had to worry 'bout nothin'

now for nigh on fifteen years

I can still hear the desperation

in my poor mommas voice ringin' 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,

but if you want out well it's up to you.

Now get on out, you better move uptown.

And I guess she did"