Retrospective: Reba’s ‘Fancy’ turns 30

Reba and producer Tony Brown were reaching the end of recording sessions. Rumor Has It, Reba’s 17th studio record, was practically done, but it needed that extra lift. The country superstar had always wanted to record “Fancy,” originally released by Bobbie Gentry in 1969, but the stars never seemed to align. 

MCA Records head Jimmy Bowen wasn’t keen on her recording it, as it was too closely associated with Gentry. When he left the label in the late ‘80s, selling off his new Universal Records imprint to Capital, Brown inherited much of the artist roster ─ and that included Reba. Their first collaboration together was 1990’s Rumor Has It, which turns 30 years old this Friday (September 4), a career move that would prove quite lucrative for both.

Having growing up in the church, Brown didn’t start listening to mainstream pop and country music until around 1969 or so. The timing could not have been better. Bobbie Gentry had already garnered a smash hit single with 1967’s “Ode to Billie Joe,” her signature, and her stardom was exponentially rising. It was during an Oklahoma City tour stop when Brown first saw Gentry play live, opening a set for Glen Campbell. He was immediately mesmerized by not only her presence but her storytelling ability.

Fast forward 20 years, Brown would be at the helm of crafting what has arguably become one of modern country’s most enduring classics. Reba’s “Fancy” features all the hallmarks of the original, a grittiness in the acoustic guitar that seems to weave in and out of the haunting melody, but there’s considerably more bombast. Always one to uncover new interpretative layers, Reba digs her heels into the earth to unravel a tale of poverty, prostitution, and ultimately hope.

“Near the end of recording, Reba said, ‘Do you remember the song ‘Fancy’?’ I said, ‘I love that song.’ She said, ‘I want to cut that.’ I said, ‘Let’s do it,’” recalls Brown. “So, we cut it, and it sounded awesome. I went back to the office the next day, and Bruce Hinton, who became the new CEO, said, ‘I heard you cut ‘Fancy’ last night. I said, ‘We did.’ He said, ‘How’d it turn out?’ I said, ‘It’s incredible and sounds like a smash.’ He said, ‘That’s what I was afraid of.’”

“I said, ‘What do you mean?’ He said, ‘You know what that song’s about don’t you?’ I said, ‘Yes, about a girl that lives in the country, kind of like how I was raised, and then she gets to go to the big city and make it big.’ He said, ‘It’s about a prostitute.’ And I said, ‘I never knew that. I never even paid any attention to the lyrics.’ I just focused on the drama in the track.”

“Fancy” most certainly leans heavily into dark theatrics, particularly in Reba’s iteration, but it is perhaps the narrative that has given it such a legacy. Jonna Volz, who played Young Fancy in the video, considers its themes as the driving force behind its generation-defying appeal. “The song and the video have survived generations now. I live in a college town in the Midwest, and it’s not just people my age or older who love this song,” says Volz, who now lives in Springfield, Missouri and works as an acting coach, as well as volunteers at youth homeless shelters. “It’s the younger kids, too. They know it. It’s almost like ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ but in the country world.”

She continues, “One of the reasons I think the song has stood the test of time is the message. It’s the relatability of the story Fancy went through and the awareness that’s going on about sex trafficking, prostitution, and homelessness. At the end of the video, the director put up a sign that said Home for Runaways. It’s just very moving and tragic. She survived. So, it’s a message of hope. We always need that message.”

The “Fancy” music video, filmed on a brisk February morning on the outskirts of Nashville, depicts the story almost beat-for-beat from the song. Directed by Jack Cole, also known for helming other Reba clips like “The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia” and “Is There Life Out There,” the visual stuns with its barebones presentation and relentless emotional weight.

30 years later, Reba’s “Fancy” has taken on iconic status. In spite of only charting just inside the Top 10 at radio, it continues to pierce through time to remain one of country’s brightest storytelling treasures. You’d be hard pressed to find anyone who doesn’t know the song either. In celebration of the anniversary, B-Sides & Badlands spoke with Jonna Volz (Young Fancy), Norman Woodel (“Gabby Cabbie”), and producer Tony Brown about the song/video’s endurance, its timely themes, and on-set memories.

---

In the Studio

Brown: We pretty much copied the production of [the original] because it was so good. If you didn’t do all that drama in that track, it wouldn’t have been the same thing. It was so fun trying to recreate it.I was still brand new. I had not produced any superstars at that point. When I got Reba, Bowen had just started letting me sign some acts like Patty Loveless. Reba was the first big superstar I got a chance to produce. This song was one of those moments where I thought this was really going to happen for me. I just remember when we cut it, I thought, “God, if this doesn’t work, I quit.” [laughs]

We went to extreme measures to make it sound and represent how Bobbie had presented it. Sonically, we’d gone further in recording than she did back in those days, so we just pretty much maxed it out. In the studio, at the end of the night, all the players were just high as a kite. They play on so many records, and you can tell when they’re phoning it in or they’re actually into it. And they were really into this song that night. It was sounding pretty good. At the end of the night, we were pretty much playing that song about 20 times over and over again.

In Los Angeles, there was the Wrecking Crew at one time that played on all the records. Then, in Nashville for years, there was The A-Team, which was Nashville’s version of the Wrecking Crew. Bowen let us use whoever we wanted to hire for a session. And Bowen had his group of people that he hired. When I got a chance to do this record, I wanted to make an impression on Reba. A drummer named Larry London, and he’s probably the greatest drummer I’ve ever worked with. When he came out of Motown, he was a bombastic drummer, and as a matter of fact, in the years I played with Elvis, Elvis’ drummer was Ronnie Tutt for like 20 or 30 years. The last two shows Elvis ever played, Ronnie had a family emergency, and he couldn’t play the last two shows, which were Cincinnati on the 25th and in Indianapolis on the 26th of June in ’77. 

The only drummer that could fill Ronnie’s shoes was Larry. So, Larry played with Elvis on the last two shows. And he also had played in a band that I played in called the Cherry Bombs. Bown always used a couple drummers, the same ones, and so I wanted to use Larry on these sessions. On “Fancy,” check out the drums on this song. He was a big part of the machine driving that track and driving her. I think I made a good impression. That was one of the last sessions I ever did with him.

Landing the Part

Volz: I had an agent. They saw my headshot and called, saying, “Oh, you kind of look like a younger Reba.” I remember going into the room, and it was an improvised audition. They’d throw ideas at me. There was no script or anything. They didn’t play the song. Nothing like that. They just said, “Here is this girl, and this is the situation. Here’s what we want you to think, and we want you to walk away from the camera and turn around and cry.” I thought, “Oh, ok.” It was one of these cry on cue auditions. I had some of my go-to acting techniques. I was able to pull it off. A tear fell out of my face in the audition. 

Woodel: It was a very exciting time. That was probably the most exciting thing since the death of disco maybe in the 1970s. I had just stepped into acting, coming out of being a journalist, with a chance to work with Reba McEntire. I had started working with Jack Cole on the Dolly Parton music video, “Why’d You Come in Here Lookin’ Like That,” and then, he just hired me for this.

Filming

The rustic cabin sits somewhere on the outskirts of Nashville. It was a very wintry morning in February 1991.

Volz: I got there probably six or seven in the morning. It was definitely sunrise to sunset. They had a trailer they brought in like a camper. They started on my hair and makeup in the morning. I remember they were waiting for the sun to get just high enough to get the first shot. I think the first shot we did was the moment I was holding the magazine sitting in the backyard before I went to the window to see the baby crying. Ironically, that’s during the line of the song when it says, “It was the summer I turned 18.” [laughs] Luckily, when the sun came out, it wasn’t freezing. There’s a moment in the video where you can see me walking away from the front porch, and I’m crying and exhaling, you can see my breath.

As an acting coach now, I’m embarrassed to say that the 15-year-old me did not prepare [much for the shoot]. I had been in acting classes. They gave me the character breakdown, and I just considered it. As the director told me what he wanted, I just obeyed. [laughs] I had been in theatre since I was younger than 10, and I had had a lot of training. My imagination and ability to flip a switch and believe in circumstances quickly was a skill I had developed. I really relied on that for the video. I didn’t have a script. I showed up, and they directed me what to do. I took the time I had to prepare then.

We shot my scenes on a Friday. They shot Reba’s scenes on Saturday when it was raining. She came in the morning when I was getting my hair and makeup done. She came into the trailer. I remember she came up to me. The lady was putting makeup on my face, and so I had to look straight ahead. Reba leaned down next to me and said, “Hey there, little Fancy!” [laughs] She was so sweet. She then asked me some questions about how I was doing. I think of myself as a professional actor at this point, so I was like, “I’m focusing. This is work.” I heard her go off to the side and whisper to the director, “Oh, she’s perfect.” She stuck around the set for a while and watched. She got pictures with me. I didn’t get any pictures of her. My mom and I are still like, “Why did we not do that?!” We were so focused on working. [laughs]

Woodel: Reba and me did not have any sort of overly insightful or deeply revealing conversations. I just remember it was the beginning of both our on-camera acting careers. I’m old enough to remember Bobbie Gentry. In fact, I graduated from high school in 1968. So, I remember the Bobbie Gentry version of the song. I was curious why she would have chosen this song to redo. She knows what she is doing. I also had a sense that the story was close to her heart. Maybe she had an appreciation for the song or something reminded her of her early days. Then, to see it go on to such phenomenal success was great. It’s always great to be part of something that is so liked by the public.

It’s something I’m very proud to have been a part of. I call him the Gabbie Cabbie because he just talked through the whole time she was in the car. Jack allowed me to do a little improvising with the character. Looking at the script and talking with Jack, I knew he had his own energy, and he had a fascination with Fancy Rae Baker being in his cab. I’m actually from western Pennsylvania and lived in New York and New Jersey, and in 1990, I would have been in Nashville for a little while. Putting on a southern accent was certainly a bit of acting there.

I had to drive the cab up and down the road several times with a stand-in for Reba in the backseat. I don’t know if either one of us screwed up our lines that much. It flowed pretty well. It was a day of shooting, but it certainly wasn’t a day of driving the cab. The thing I noticed about Reba is she was so focused on that character. Despite the fact I had been a journalist for a long time before that, and I was curious and would have liked to ask a lot of questions, I didn’t want to disrupt the focus she had. The only thing I really thought was so many country stars have done television shows, but they’ve mostly been variety shows. I had the feeling this acting bug was going to get Reba, and she was going to go on and do other things. Of course, she ended up with a show called ‘Reba.’ You could see the joy she was having telling this story.

The Porch Scene

One of the video’s most crucial moments arrives when a mysterious black car pulls into the driveway. It is in this moment Fancy, wearing a red velvet dress and suitcase in hand, realizes what is actually happening: that her mother has sold her out of a desperate life into one of prostitution.

Volz: I told you I cried in the audition. Well, there is a scene in the video where that’s supposed to happen. On the day, it was cold, and it was my first on camera dramatic acting job that was difficult. I couldn’t get the tear to fall. They held the camera on me, and they were waiting for the tear to fall. He kept the shot with my eyeball with the tear inside my eye for a very long time. The tear never fell. I tried really, really hard to cry. I was just thinking, “Cry, Jonna, just cry, cry!” And I couldn’t. 

I’m tearing up just thinking about what that moment would have been like for her, a child. It’s heartbreaking. As an actor, there’s not really a car driving in that moment. It’s all in my imagination. They say, “We want you to look over here, and this is what you see.” It’s just having that subtle realization versus overacting it. You take that moment, and you make it real. The subtlety and honesty has now translated. Sometimes, whenever you’re surprised with information that is shocking, we are stunned. She was thinking, “What is going on? I can’t believe this!” It wasn’t this weeping breakdown. She was still processing what was even happening.

We had to tear off that chain probably about 10 times. We had to break it, put it back together, break it again, put it back together. It was very technical for that part. And ever since then, red dresses have had a very special place in my heart. It always means something to me.

Fancy Representative of Fate

“But the wheels of fate had started to turn / And for me there was no way out,” reads one of the song’s existential lyrics. In many ways, the character of Fancy embodies notions of fate and if we, mere human beings, have any bearing over what becomes of us. Or maybe we’re just cogs in a larger machine.

Volz: I can connect to that. It doesn’t have to be prostitution or living on the streets or anything that tragic. But a lot of us spend time where we have to make big sacrifices that hurt. You can either lose yourself like so many people ─ and it often results in suicides or addiction ─ or you find the strength to overcome. I will say through my struggles in my own life, I’ve been very grateful for my family. They’re a huge part of my survival. It’s so easy to want to give up, and I think Fancy represents that.

What is specifically so interesting about the Fancy story and how it’s told is she made the choices. The first choice, she didn’t make. She could have said, “No, I’m staying here.” But she did what her mother told her. Her mother’s influence was so powerful. She said, “Don’t let me down.” Her desire to make her mother proud and just do it says a lot. Children wanting to please their parents and motivations behind life is a big conversation. She worked her way up and used the power that she had to get herself out. She’s not ashamed. She did what she had to do to get out.

30-Year Legacy

Volz: Teenage me lived in a bubble. [laughs] I was this nerdy theatre kid in school, and I got along with a lot of people. They knew I was uncompeting and doing acting stuff here and there. As soon as this music video hit, all of a sudden, people who did not normally talk to me started talking to me. The attention that kept coming from it, it did slowly hit me.

Over the years, especially the past 10 years, it has become more and more apparent that this song is going to be around for a very long time. The music video has become iconic. I’m aware of that because I’ll meet people who come to realize I’m in the video, and they look at me and their jaw drops. They’ll start getting nervous, and they’re like, “Oh my god, I’m starstruck, and can I get your autograph?” I’m like, “What are you talking about? This is a 30-year-old video.” But it has made such an impact. I had a war veteran come up to me and say, “Thank you so much for your work in that video. That song meant a lot to us over in the war.

Woodel: It’s a story that touches a lot of people. Somebody coming from small beginnings. In terms of country music, most songs are done by people like that. Many people performing in country music came from humble beginnings and went on to huge success. It’s just a wonderful story about somebody starting somewhere, and it’s got a dark side and a positive side. It’s its own little movie. Now in hindsight, to see her success, it’s another reminder that if you set your mind to something and are willing to be open minded and do the work, great things can happen.

Brown: It was only a top 10 record, but it’s the most important song in our repertoire. If you go see Reba play live, and she doesn’t do that, you would be really upset. And you can just tell the crowd waits till she does that song. That’s why I realized that number one songs are great to have, but with a lot of artists, their biggest songs never became number one songs. 

People relate Reba with ‘Fancy,’ and I’m glad that Bowen didn’t do the song. It was a stroke of luck that I got to be the one to cut that song. People come up to me and ask, “What are five of your favorite hits you’ve recorded?” And that’s a hard question to answer but I can name two right off the bat, one would be “Believe” by Brooks & Dunn, and the other would be “Fancy.” I’ll see people sometimes, and they’ll say, “Hey, you’re Tony Brown. You produced Reba, right?” I say, “Yeah.” “Did you produce ‘Fancy’?” I say, “I sure did.” And they go, “Oh, my gosh.” I love the money you get from producing her records, but I really love being attached to work that you’ve done that is recognized like this song. It’s priceless.

I’ve produce so many records. You want a number one record, that’s always a thrill. But you start noticing things that you’ve done that really made an impact. A big hit that makes an impact like “Fancy” is a different feeling. All of a sudden people think that you did it. No, I didn’t do it. It was Reba’s idea. She wanted to make it sound cool like Bobbie Gentry’s, and  I went along with it. And it was really a team effort there. You don’t know when you’re doing it. Here, it is 30 years later. Out of all the hits Reba’s had, the fact it was a cover is what’s so amazing about it. This song never fails to work for her, too. 

Follow B-Sides & Badlands on our socials: Twitter | Facebook | Instagram