Prisoner of Love

Words & Music by Leo Robin, Glarence Gaskill & Russ Columbo, 1931
Recorded by Perry Como, 1946 (#1)


  E7/9     Bm7-5                  A7/6      A7
Alone from night to night you'll find me,

Dalt        D           D6        F#m      Bb9
Too weak to break the chains that bind me;

Em        G/B           A7/6     Edim
I need no shackles to remind me

Bm        Bm7-5        Em7    G/B     A7
I'm just a prisoner of love.


E7/9      Bm7-6            A7/6      A7
For one command I stand and wait now,

Dalt           D      D6    F#m      Bb9
From one who's master of my fate now;

Em        G/B                A7/6     Edim
I can't escape, for it's too late now --

D          Gm           D
I'm just a prisoner of love.



Bridge:


           F#m        C#m7-5      
What's the good of my caring 

    F#m       C#7           F#m  B9   F#m  C#7
If someone is sharing those arms with me?

        F#m      C#m7-5
Although she has another,

  F#m        C#7          F#  C#7  A7
I can't have another, for I'm not free.


E7/9        Bm7-5             A7/6      A7
She's in my dreams, awake or sleeping,

Dalt     D       D6       F#m      Bb9
Upon my knees to her I'm creeping;

Em       G/B           A7/6     Edim
My very life is in her keeping --

D          Gm           D
I'm just a prisoner of love.

Though co-writer Russ Columbo had previously recorded the song in 1932, it is Como's rendition that comes most immediately to mind when I hear this melody. Versions by The Ink Spots and by Billy Eckstine charted the year before Como recorded his.

The lyric and guitar chord transcriptions on this site are the work of The Guitarguy and are intended for private study, research, or educational purposes only. Individual transcriptions are inspired by and and based upon the recorded versions cited, but are not necessarily exact replications of those recorded versions.