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 But Mama spent every last penny she had To buy me a dancin' dress Well Mama washed and combed and curled my hair She painted my eyes and lips well then I stepped down into A satin' Dancin' dress that had a split on the side clean up To my hip Well it was red velvet trim and it fit me good Standin' back from the lookin' glass There stood 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 Mama dabbled a little bit of perfume on my neck And then she kissed my cheek And I saw the tears wellin' up in her troubled eyes When she started to speak She looked at a pitiful shack and then she looked at me and took a ragged Ragged breath She said 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 then 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 be nice to the gentlemen Fancy 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 Well don't let me down Now your Mama's gonna move you uptown Well, 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 Well But the wheels of fate they was startin' to turn And for me there was no way out It wasn't very long 'til I knew exactly What Mama'd been talkin' about I knew what I had to do but I made myself this Solemn vow Oh I's 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 you know I might have been born just plain white trash But Fancy was my name Here's your one chance Fancy don't let me down 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 street And one week later I was pourin' his tea In a five room hotel suite I charmed a king, congressman And the occasional aristocrat 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 Hippocrates That would call me bad They criticize Mama for turning me out No matter how little we had But though I ain't had to worry 'bout nothin' For nigh on fifteen years I can still hear the desperation in my poor Mama's voice ringin' in my ear 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 Mama's gonna help you uptown Uptown oh oh