Intro
F# A B F#

   F#
I remember it all very well lookin' back
           E  
It was the summer I turned eighteen
    B
We lived in a one room, rundown shack
       D   
On the outskirts of New Orleans
   F#
We didn't have money for food or rent
            E      
To say the least we were hard pressed
     B
Then Mama spent every last penny we had
   D                           
To buy me a dancin' dress

 F#
Mama washed and combed and curled my hair
        B                   F#
and she painted my eyes and lips then I stepped into a satin
                          B                      F#
dancin' dress that had a split on the side clean up to my hip
        F#            B              F#
It was red velvet trim and it fit me good
         F#
Standin' back from the lookin' glass
                            B                   F#
There stood a woman where a half grown kid had stood

          D                     E                   F#
She said 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

     F#                                    E
Mama dabbed a little bit of perfume on my neck
 
And she kissed my cheek
       B/D#                                        D
Then I saw the tears wellin' up in her troubled eyes
     
When she started to speak
    F#
She looked at a pitiful shack
                       E
And then she looked at me and took a ragged breath
              B/D#               
She said your Pa's run off and I'm real sick
         D 
And the baby's gonna starve to death
    F#
She handed me a heart shaped locket that said
     E
"To thine own self be true"
       B/D# 
And I shivered as I watched a roach crawl across
    D  
the toe of my high heeled shoe
   F#
It sounded like somebody else that was talkin'
       A#             D#M
Askin' Mama what do I do
          B
She said just be nice to the gentlemen Fancy
    C# 
And they'll be nice to you

          D                       E                  F# 
She said, 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
Lord forgive me for what I do, but if you want out
           E
Well it's up to you
           D                   C#                      F#
Now don't let me down now your Mama's gonna move you uptown

     F#
Well that was the last time I saw my Mama
             E
The night I left that rickety shack
     B/D#
The welfare people came and took the baby
      D    
Mama died and I ain't been back

        F#
But the wheel of fate had started to turn
        E
And for me there was no way out
        B/D#
And it wasn't very long 'til I knew exactly
         D     
What my Mama'd been talkin' about

  F#                                  E
I knew what I had to do but I made myself this solemn vow
      B/D#
That I's gonna be a lady someday
         D
Though I didn't know when or how
  F#
I couldn't see spending the rest of my life
         A#                D#m
With my head hung down in shame you know
   B
I might have been born just plain white trash
     C#   
But Fancy was my name

 D                     E                    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

   (F#)
It wasn't long after a benevolent man
     (E)
Took me off the street
     (B)
And one week later I was pourin' his tea
     (F#)
In a five room hotel suite

   (F#)
I charmed a king, a congressman

And an occasional aristocrat

Then I got me a Georgia mansion

In an elegant New York townhouse flat
                 F#     A     B     (F#)
And I ain't gone back

    F#                                             B
Now in this world there's a lot of self-righteous hippocrits
             F# 
That call me bad
 
And criticize Mama for turning me out
   B                    F# 
No matter how little we had 

But though I ain't had to worry 'bout nothin'
    A#               D#m 
For nigh on fifteen years 
             B
Well, I can still hear the desperation in my poor
        C# 
Mama's voice ringin' in my ears 
 D                       E                   F#
"Here's your one chance Fancy, don't let me down."
     A                       B                   F# 
Oh. "Here's your one chance Fancy, don't let me down."
          A                    B 
"Lord, forgive me for what I do 
        D
But if you want out
           E
Well, it's up to you
     D                           C#                    F#
Now don't let me down hon, your mama's gonna move you uptown."

And I guess she did

Outro same as intro