The Reba McEntire Fancy song was released in 1991 and reached #8 on the Billboard Country Music chart. The country music icon celebrated the 30th Anniversary of her song, “Fancy”! That’s right, Reba McEntire‘s “Fancy” became three decades old on February 11, 2021. She posted to socials the morning on 2/11/2021, saying, “When “Fancy” was released 30 years ago today, I had no idea that it would go on to become my most well-known and most requested song. That’s the power of a great story song!”
Reba told UMG Nashville that she fell in love with “Fancy” when Bobbie Gentry originally released it. “I fell in love with that song when Bobbie Gentry had it out in the late ’60s,” says Reba. “It was a hit then, and it’s been a hit every time anybody listens to it. Everybody can relate to it; it’s a rags-to-riches song. I had wanted to do that song earlier, but not until I got with Tony Brown in 1990 to do this album (Rumor Has It), he had asked me, he said, ‘Are there any old songs you’d like to do a remake on?’ And I looked at him and said, ‘Yeah! Fancy!’ He said, ‘Omigosh! That’s my favorite song!’ So, we did this song, and it has just been with me forever. I just absolutely love it.”
The music video became the most popular of Reba’s career with over 60 million views as of December of 2023. Watch the music video and see the song details and written lyrics below.
Reba McEntire Fancy Music Video
Reba plays the iconic role of Fancy Rae Baker in this rags-to-riches story of a well-to-do woman who returns to her childhood home. She recalls her turbulent childhood and her mother, whose circumstances forced her to send her daughter into prostitution to survive. This story follows Baker and her determination to rise from “just plain white trash,” as the lyrics describe, to “become a lady someday”.
The original “Fancy” song was written and recorded by Bobbie Gentry in 1969.
Reba McEntire Fancy Lyrics
I remember it all very well lookin’ back
It was the summer 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
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 on the side clean up to my hip
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
She said, “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 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 a 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.”
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,
And 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 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
But the wheels of fate had started to turn
And for me there was no way out
And it wasn’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
But 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
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.”
It wasn’t long after that 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, a congressman and an occasional aristocrat
And then I got me a Georgia mansion and an elegant New York townhouse flat
And I ain’t done bad
Now in this world there’s a lot of self-righteous hypocrites
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
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
Now your Mama’s gonna move you uptown.”
Well, I guess she did
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