The Prisoner's Song
written by vernon dalhart
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THE PRISONER'S SONG - THE ET BOYS
THE PRISONER'S SONG (SCREEN SONGS) 1930
THE PRISONER'S SONG (SCREEN SONGS) 1930
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The Prisoner's Song was one of the top-selling songs of the 1920's. Sheet music sales was the typical way to gage music sales in the 1920's, and this was the first country song to sell over 1 million copies. The song was copyrighted and recorded in 1924 by Vernon Dalhart. He had reportedly heard the song from his cousin, who had heard it from his brother - a former prisoner. The authorship of the song has been a major controversy - one story claims that the songs lyrics had been discovered on the walls of a Georgia cellblock. In 1930, the song was the plot basis for a Screen Songs short, which featured a bouncing teardrop in the place of Fleischer's famous Bouncing Ball. The teardrop bounces over the song's lyrics for almost an entire three minutes. The Prisoner's Song also appears briefly in scenes from several other Fleischer Studio's films.
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1925
VERNON DALHART |
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1925
GEORGE M. RENEAU |
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1925
DAVE KAPLAN'S MELODISTS |
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192?
DOCK BOGGS |
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1930
AL BOWLLY & RAY NOBLE (sung in Afrikaans) |
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1937
BUNNY BERIGAN AND HIS ORCHESTRA |
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1951
BILL MONROE |
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1951
PATTI PAGE |
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1952
THE LILY BROTHERS |
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19??
TABANYI MIHALY |
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1955
KAY STARR |
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1956
SONNY BURGESS |
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1957
LOUIS ARMSTRONG |
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1958
FATS DOMINO |
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1958
JOE JONES |
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1958
WARREN STORM |
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1958
SLIM WHITMAN |
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1959
EARL SCRUGGS |
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1961
BRENDA LEE |
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19??
ELVIS PRESLEY |
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1962
DUANE EDDY |
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1962
HYLO BROWN AND THE TIMBERLINERS |
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1962
FLATT & SCRUGGS |
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1964
HANK SNOW |
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1964
GENE BARRY |
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1965
MAUREEN MOORE |
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1966
DAVID GRISMAN |
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1970
BRIAN COLL |
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1971
JOHNNY CASH |
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1972
LARRY JEFFERSON |
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1976
SONNY JAMES |
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1978
ROLAND WHITE |
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1987
MAC WISEMAN |
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199?
JOHN HOGAN |
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1996
JOE VAL AND THE NEW ENGLAND BLUEGRASS BOYS |
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19??
EUGENE DOONAN |
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2000
DAVID ALLEN COE |
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2002
DEL McCOURY |
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20??
SISTER SADLE |
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2008
THE OSBOURNE BROTHERS |
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2010
ROLAND WHITE |
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2014
RUSTY DEDRICK |
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2016
MIKE COMPTON & MICHAEL DAVES |
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PLAYER PIANO |
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THE PRISONER'S SONG
Oh, I wish I had some-one to love me
Some-one to call me their own
Oh, I wish I had some-one to live with
'Cause I'm ti-red of liv-in' a-lone
Oh, please meet me to-night in the moon-light
Please meet me to-night all a-lone
For I have a sad sto-ry to tell you
It's a sto-ry that's nev-er been told
I'll be car-ried to the new jail to-mor-row
Leav-ing my poor dar-ling all a-lone
With the cold pris-on bars all a-round me
And my head on a pil-low of stone
Now I have a grand ship on the o-cean
All mount-ed with sil-ver and gold
And be-fore my poor dar-lin' would suf-fer
Oh! That ship would be an-chored and sold
Now if I had wings like an an-gel
O-ver these pri-son walls I would fly
And I'd fly to the arms of my poor dar-lin'
And there I'd be wil-ling to die
Oh, I wish I had some-one to love me
Some-one to call me their own
Oh, I wish I had some-one to live with
'Cause I'm ti-red of liv-in' a-lone
Oh, please meet me to-night in the moon-light
Please meet me to-night all a-lone
For I have a sad sto-ry to tell you
It's a sto-ry that's nev-er been told
I'll be car-ried to the new jail to-mor-row
Leav-ing my poor dar-ling all a-lone
With the cold pris-on bars all a-round me
And my head on a pil-low of stone
Now I have a grand ship on the o-cean
All mount-ed with sil-ver and gold
And be-fore my poor dar-lin' would suf-fer
Oh! That ship would be an-chored and sold
Now if I had wings like an an-gel
O-ver these pri-son walls I would fly
And I'd fly to the arms of my poor dar-lin'
And there I'd be wil-ling to die
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