F#
I remember it all very well looking back
F#
Was the summer I turned eighteen
F#
We lived in a one room, worn-out shack on the outskirts of New Orleans
F#
We didn't have money for food or rent, to say the least we was hard-pressed
F#
And mama spent every last penny we had to buy me a dancin' dress
F#
Mama washed and combed and curled my hair and she painted my eyes and lips
F#
Stepped into a satin dancin' dress that had a slit in the side clean up to my hips
F#
It was red velvet trimming and it fit me good
F#
Staring back from the looking glass, there stood a woman where a half-grown boy had stood

[Chorus]
D                                           F#
Here's your one chance, Fancy, don't let me down
A                       B                   F#
Here's your one chance, Fancy, don't let me down

[Verse 2]
F#
Mama dabbed a little bit of perfume on my neck and she kissed my cheek
F#
I could see the tears welling up in her troubled eyes as she started to speak
F#
She looked at our pitiful shack, and then she looked at me and took a ragged breath
F#                                                   D
She said your Pa's run off and I'm real sick and the baby's gonna starve to death
F#                                             E
She handed me a heart-shaped locket that said, "To thine own self be true"
B                                                    D
And I shivered as I watched a roach crawl across the toe of my high-heeled shoe
F#                                                      E
It sounded like somebody else that was talking, asking, "Mama what do I do?"
B                                                C#
She said, "Just be nice to the gentleman, Fancy, they'll be nice to you"

[Chorus]
D                                           F#
Here's your one chance, Fancy, don't let me down
A                       B                   F#
Here's your one chance, Fancy, don't let me down
      A                     B          D                   E
Lord, forgive me for what I do, but if you want out, well, it's up to you
      D                     C#                         F#
Don't let me down now, your mama's gonna move you uptown

[Verse 3]
F#                                      E
That was the last time I saw my Ma, the night I left that rickety shack
    B                                      D
The welfare people came and took the baby, mama died and I ain't been back
F#                                              E
But the wheels of fate had started to turn and for me there was no way out
   B                                            D
It wasn't very long till I knew exactly what my mama'd been talking about
F#                                      E
I knew what I had to do but I made myself this solemn vow
     B                                  D
Said I was gonna be a lady someday, though it didn't matter when or how
F#                                                  E
I couldn't see spending the rest of my life with my head held down in shame
          B                                               C#
You know, I might've been born just plain white trash but Fancy was my name

[Chorus]
D                                           F#
Here's your one chance, Fancy, don't let me down
A                       B                   F#
Here's your one chance, Fancy, don't let me down

[Verse 4]
F#
It wasn't long after a benevolent man took me in off the street
F#                                        B               F#
One week later I was pouring his tea in a five-room hotel suite
F#
I charmed a king, a congressman, and the occasional aristocrat
F#                                B                                                F#   B
I got me a Georgia mansion and an elegant New York townhouse flat and I ain't done bad
F#
Now in this life there's a lot of self-righteous hypocrites that call me bad
F#                                        B                    F#
And criticize mama for turning me out, no matter how little we had
F#
And though I ain't had to worry 'bout nothin' for now on fifteen years
B#                                                 C#
I can still hear the desperation in my poor mama's voice ringing in my ears

[Chorus]
D                                           F#
Here's your one chance, Fancy, don't let me down
A                       B                   F#
Here's your one chance, Fancy, don't let me down
      A                     B          D                        E
Lord, forgive me for what I do, but if you want out, well, it's up to you
D                           C#                    F#
Don't let me down now, your mama's gonna move you Uptown