[Originally by Reba McEntire]
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I remember it all very well lookin' back
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It was the summer I turned eighteen
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We lived in a one room, rundown shack
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On the outskirts of New Orleans
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We didn't have money for food or rent
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To say the least we were hard pressed
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But Mama spent every last penny she had
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To buy me a dancin' dress
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Well Mama washed and combed and curled my hair
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She painted my eyes and lips well then I stepped down into
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a satin'
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dancin' dress that had a split on the side clean up
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to my hip
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Well it was red velvet trim and it fit me good
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Standin' back from the lookin' glass
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There stood a woman where a half grown kid
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had stood
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Here's your one chance Fancy don't let
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me down
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Here's your one chance Fancy don't let me down
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Mama dabbled a little bit of perfume on my neck
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And then she kissed my cheek
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And I saw the tears wellin' up in her troubled eyes
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When she started to speak
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She looked at a pitiful shack and then she looked at me and took a ragged
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ragged breath
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She said your Pa's run off and I'm real sick
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And the baby's gonna starve to death
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She handed me a heart shaped locket that said
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To thine own self be true
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And then I shivered as I watched a roach crawl across
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The toe of my high heeled shoe
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It sounded like somebody else that was talkin'
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Askin' Mama what do I do
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She said be nice to the gentlemen Fancy
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They'll be nice to you
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Here's your one chance Fancy don't let me down
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Here's your one chance Fancy don't let me down
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Lord forgive me for what I do,
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but if you want out
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Well it's up to you
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Well don't let me down
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Now your Mama's gonna move you uptown
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Well, that was the last time I saw my Ma
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The night I left that rickety shack
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The welfare people came and took the baby
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Mama died and I ain't been back
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Well But the wheels of fate they was startin' to turn
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And for me there was no way out
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It wasn't very long 'til I knew exactly
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What Mama'd been talkin' about
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I knew what I had to do but I made myself this
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solemn vow
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Oh I's gonna be a lady someday
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Though I didn't know when or how
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I couldn't see spending the rest of my life
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With my head hung down in shame you know
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I might have been born just plain white trash
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But Fancy was my name
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Here's your one chance Fancy don't let me down
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Said here's your one chance Fancy don't let me down
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It wasn't long after a benevolent man
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Took me in off the street
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And one week later I was pourin' his tea
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In a five room hotel suite
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I charmed a king, congressman
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And the occasional aristocrat
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Then I got me a Georgia mansion
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In an elegant New York townhouse flat
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And I ain't done bad
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Now in this world there's a lot of self-righteous
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Hippocrates
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That would call me bad
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They criticize Mama for turning me out
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No matter how little we had
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But though I ain't had to worry 'bout nothin'
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For nigh on fifteen years
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I can still hear the desperation in my poor
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Mama's voice ringin' in my ear
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Here's your one chance Fancy don't let me down
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Here's your one chance Fancy don't let me down
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Lord, forgive me for what I do
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But if you want out well it's up to you
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Now don't let me down
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Your Mama's gonna help you uptown
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Uptown oh oh
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Fancy
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He Is Legend |