Country superstar Reba McEntire has a career of mega-hits, but one of her most memorable songs is actually not an original at all. So what’s the story behind “Fancy,” and how did it become synonymous with Reba over the past few decades even though she wasn’t the first to perform it?
The Queen of Country was always a fan of “Fancy,” a song originally written and recorded by Bobbie Gentry all the way back in 1969. It was a modest hit at the time, cracking the Billboard Top 40, but it also caught the ear of a young McEntire.
That’s what eventually led McEntire to cover “Fancy” with her own version, while putting together her 1991 album Rumor Has It. Her version of “Fancy” actually surpassed Gentry’s original on the charts, cracking the Top 10 on Billboard’s country charts in the year of its release more than 20 years after the original version.
McEntire opened up about her affinity for the song in a 2019 interview, noting it was always at the top of her list if she had a chance to cover a song for one of her albums. The song itself, as written by Guthrie, tells the story of a down on her luck woman who is doing anything possible to try and get by and make ends meet.
“It’s a rags-to-riches story. I love rags-to-riches stories. Cinderella, Annie Get Your Gun, all poverty and then make it big in the world,” she told Country Living. “Fancy — she had a lot going against her and she persevered and moved on … I always wanted to record it. Then [producer] Tony Brown said, ‘What’s a song you’d like to do a remake of?’ And I said, ‘Fancy.’ He said, ‘That’s one of my favorite songs, too.’ And so we recorded it.”
What Is Reba’s “Fancy” Music Video About?
McEntire turned the song and its story into a full-on short film for the release of her version, casting herself as the main character, Fancy, in the music video. The video tells the story of a now-famous Fancy as she revisits her childhood home and recounts the memories of her life. The video was directed by Jack Cole.
“She handed me a heart-shaped locket that said, ‘To thine own self be true,'” McEntire sings. “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.'”
