Songfacts®:

• After Barbra Streisand headlined A Star Is Born, produced by her then-boyfriend Jon Peters, she was supposed to star in his next vehicle, the supernatural horror film Eyes Of Laura Mars, where she'd be playing a fashion photographer who's plagued by visions of murder. But the concept ended up being too scary (or, according to Peters, "too kinky") for the horror-phobic singer, and she dropped out at the last minute, leaving Faye Dunaway to take over the role.
  
  Streisand still agreed to sing the moody love theme, "Prisoner," for the soundtrack and the single went to #21 on the Hot 100. The lyrics detail Streisand's complicated romance with a man whose hypnotic gaze holds her captive.
• The song wasn't written specifically for the film. Karen Lawrence and John DeSautels wrote it for their short-lived band LA Jets, who recorded it in 1976 and notched an entry on the Hot 100 at #86 the following year. Lawrence was impressed with Streisand's take.
  
  "I thought Barbra would be able to do a great job on the song," she's quoted in Matt Howe's book Barbra Streisand: the Music, the Albums, the Singles. "She can sing full blast, flat out, but she's sensitive, too. Now that she's really doing it, it's just a mind blower. They even kept the little piano intro I wrote, which is flattering."
• Lawrence, who formed the group Blue By Nature in 1993, didn't perform the song for several years, but picked it up again after being inspired by guitarist Joe Bonamassa's version, featured on his 2011 Dust Bowl album. Lawrence re-recorded a new solo version in 2020, and explained why it took so long to revisit the ballad.
  
  "The song 'Prisoner' had not been on my short list of tunes to play for a good many years," she said. "One reason is because I associate it with more than a few heartbreaks, namely, an unfinished, unreleased album from my first recording band, LA Jets. Recording our second album at the legendary Bearsville Studios in upstate New York and flying to the west coast to perform on Don Kirshner's Rock Concert were part of the heady good times. But the record company wasn't amused so our project was shelved and so were we.
  
  Happily, the song was later picked up and performed by Barbra Streisand as the theme song for the movie Eyes of Laura Mars! Recently, Joe Bonamassa's strong and bluesy interpretation inspired me to learn it again on guitar."
• Streisand had another single climbing the charts at the same time, "Songbird" - the title track of her 20th studio album. Both singles were produced by Gary Klein, who worked with the singer on her 1977 Superman album.
• Streisand signed on for keeps on Peters' next film project, The Main Event, starring alongside her former What's Up, Doc? screen partner, Ryan O'Neal. She also sang the movie's disco-influenced theme song, which earned a Golden Globe nomination for Best Original Song.