Reba McEntire had no real reason to believe she had a loyal gay following. The year was 1990, and “Fancy,” her version of Bobbie Gentry’s intensely feminist rags-to-riches tale, seemed to capture the imagination of far more than country music’s traditionally conservative base. The song’s slick pop flourishes stood in stark contrast to Gentry’s folk origins. It was a pop/country hybrid Reba helped cultivate throughout the previous decade, and the performance gave the red-headed Okie license to cook up shinier stage theatrics and a bolder public persona. In doing so, a new audience found an avenue through which they could express themselves.
“Fancy,” the centerpiece of Rumor Has It, tells the story of a poverty-stricken young girl named Fancy, her mother and baby brother and their sheer desperation to find a means of survival. Seeing circumstances continuing to erode, Fancy’s mother buys her daughter a red satin dress, dolls her up and sells her to a rich gentleman in the city. As we come to know, Fancy soon learns what she needs to do, fighting tooth and nail to make a way in the world. “You know I might’ve been born just plain white trash, but Fancy was my name,” Reba belts over a guitar’s gentle whine.
Rumor Has It quickly became a chart success, debuting at No. 17 on Billboard’s Top Country Albums before vaulting 14 slots the very next week. Fueled by such enduring classics like “Fancy” and the No. 1 smash “You Lie,” her 17th studio set is surely among her most cherished.