JD Souther, who wrote extensively for other artists as well as recording his own material, penned "Prisoner In Disguise" during his time with the short-lived Souther-Furay-Hillman Band, a supergroup put together by Asylum Records' David Geffen alongside Richie Furay and Chris Hillman. Although Souther sang lead on the band's country-rock version of the song for their 1975 album Trouble In Paradise, it was a later recording with Linda Ronstadt, his musical collaborator and romantic partner at the time, that is considered the song's definitive interpretation.

Ronstadt recorded "Prisoner In Disguise" as the title track of her 1975 album, stripping the arrangement back to Souther's acoustic guitar, Andrew Gold's piano and strings conducted by David Campbell, with much of the track performed as a duet between the two singers. The lyrics follow a narrator offering hard-won romantic advice to someone masking their vulnerability, building to a reflective final verse about the futility of searching for love in an unforgiving city.