Contemporary listeners are likely more familiar with a different version of “Fancy”, one by another iconic American diva who blended country music and pop. But two decades before Reba McEntire made “Fancy” her signature, Bobbi Gentry wrote the song and made it a Top 40 hit—crafting a timeless, unlikely empowerment anthem in the process. The song’s rapid-fire storytelling and signature acoustic guitar-strum were classic Gentry, while the deep groove and funky horns spoke to the iconic Muscle Shoals studio where she recorded the song and album. Her theatrical, engaging performance would be reprised nearly note for note by Reba; Gentry made it clear, though, that her intent was not just to titillate. “‘Fancy’ is my strongest statement for women’s lib, if you really listen to it,” she said at the time. “I agree wholeheartedly with that movement and all the serious issues that they stand for—equality, equal pay, day care centers and abortion rights.” The rest of the album is mostly composed of funky covers, well executed by Gentry and her seamless band, though she also dabbles in the ascendant singer-songwriter movement via James Taylor’s “Something in the Way (S)he Moves” and Laura Nyro’s “Wedding Bell Blues”. Much of her early rough-and-tumble sound is smoothed out (by choice—she produced two of the poppier sides), but fans of the sultry Southern style that made her famous can hear a bit of it on “Rainmaker” and her version of Leon Russell’s “Delta Man”. As Gentry sought to prove that she was more than just one massive song, she created a slightly more conventional but still compelling pop album—and another massive song, just not one that entered the pop music zeitgeist in exactly the way she might have preferred.