Songwriters: Gentry, Bobbie;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  Then I stepped into a satin dancin' dress  That had a split from the side clean up to my hip    It was red, velvet trimmin' 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 run'd 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?"  She said,"Just be nice to the gentlemen, Fancy"  "They'll be nice to you"    She said, "Here's your 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, and don't let me down  Now your mama's gonna move you uptown    That was the last time I saw my ma  The 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  Weren't very long 'til I knew exactly  What my mama'd 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 didn't know when or how    Well, I couldn't see spendin' 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"    Weren'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  In an elegant New York townhouse flat  And I ain't done bad    Now in this world there's a lot of self-righteous hypocrites  They call me bad  They criticize Mama for turning me out  No matter how little we had    But though I ain't had no worry 'bout nothin'  From now 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  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, honey  Your mama's gonna move you uptown    Oh, and I guess she did      © NORTHRIDGE MUSIC CO;    these lyrics are last corrected by PrincessC