More than a decade before the singer-songwriter era of the early 1970s, Jackie DeShannon was interpreting other writers’ songs and writing hit records of her own.

She came clearly into the public conscience after her recording of Jack Nitzsche and Sonny Bono’s Needles and Pins in 1963 and followed it with her own When You Walk In The Room. In 1964, both songs became hits for the English band The Searchers.

But DeShannon had been recording since the late 1950s and she would continue with a string of eclectic albums on Imperial, a subsidiary of Liberty Records, throughout the ’60s, which would include a couple of world-wide hits.

Running through all her changes in style was a pure, proficient and pleasing voice that held a tinge of country and gospel from her background and was perfectly suited for pop and rock music.

Collectors’ Choice Music has just released remastered versions of four of DeShannon’s albums spanning a period from her self-titled folk album of 1963, seeing its debut on CD, to 1968’s Me About You coupled with Set Me Free (1970) on a two-fer and on to 1975’s New Arrangement, which yielded the Grammy Hall of Fame song Bette Davis Eyes, a major hit for Kim Carnes six years later.

Most surprising is her aforementioned folk album. I have heard tracks from this album on the vinyl release In The Wind and various CD compilations and never embraced these versions because the sound quality was always lacking. But Collectors’ Choice, which has a mixed track record on remastering, has done an extraordinary job of producing a clear, open-sounding record, for the most part free of excessive compression and that has removed any trace of vocal distortion that plagued even the vinyl pressings.

According to Peter Lerner’s album notes, after seeing Bob Dylan’s first Town Hall concert in New York, DeShannon wanted to record an entire album of Dylan songs. Liberty, being anything but adventuresome at times, let DeShannon record this spare and brilliant folk album that includes three Dylan tunes, including Blowin’ In The Wind and Don’t Think Twice, It’s Alright, Bobby Darin’s Jailer Bring Me Water, several traditional gospel and country tunes, most prominent Oh Sweet Chariot and 500 Miles, and the Ric Von Schmidt tune Baby, Let Me Follow You Down, which Dylan also covered.

With for the most part only acoustic guitars and other stringed instruments such as mandolin and banjo and occasional background singers, DeShannon interprets all of these with her signature approach and compelling voice.

The only letdown is Peter Yarrow’s Puff The Magic Dragon, though DeShannon sings it well enough. The children’s sounding melody is simply time worn and really doesn’t hold up that well. Pete Seeger’s If I Had A Hammer shows off DeShannon’s voice in full gospel mode while Betsy From Pike, Sing Hallelujah, Little Yellow Roses and Dylan’s Walkin’ Down The Line complete the lineup. Again, this remastering makes the album a revelation.

Liberty and Imperial had a way of overproducing its artists, using overwrought arrangements with strings and brass when a more restrained approach may have been preferable. Still, you can’t argue with their success in pursuing this approach. And in 1966, DeShannon enjoyed a huge hit with What The World Needs Now, written by Burt Bacharach and Hal David.

The two albums on one CD of these four releases are both produced with a heavy-handed orchestration. To Be Free, which has eight DeShannon co-writes with Jimmy Holiday and Randy Myers, is the more successful of the two, but Me About You has its charm despite having just three DeShannon compositions.

Produced by Joseph Wiessert and Nitzsche, Me About You has its share of well-written songs, including the title track by Turtles writers Garry Bonner and Alan Gordon as well as two others by the songwriting team. DeShannon also covers John Sebastian’s Didn’t Want To Have To Do It and Tim Hardin’s Baby Close Its Eyes, both to good effect. The only bonus track on this two-fer is one of Hardin’s pinnacle tunes, Reason To Believe.

The highlights though are DeShannon’s own songs, Splendour In The Grass, Nicole and I Keep Wanting You, a co-write with Nitzsche. Despite many of the obtrusive orchestrations on the album, DeShannon’s voice once again breaks through the mix to supply a heartfelt and impassioned quality to each track.

To Be Free, the follow-up to her mega-hit Put A Little Love In Your Heart, marked an album with more DeShannon tunes than most of her previous records from the ’60s and is one of her milestones with several signature songs. Ranging from pure pop to soul and introspective songwriter’s fare the album succeeds on many levels.

Most prominent among DeShannon’s songs is easy listening top 10 hit Brighton Hill, an upbeat shuffle, influenced by her time in England in the mid- and late ’60s. The opening songs Livin’ On The Easy Side and What Was Your Day Like have a child-like wonder to them and are drenched in a southern California vibe, while Child Of The Street, Sooner Or Later and Mediterranean Sky produce a more soulful feel as does her medley cover of You Keep Me Hangin’ On/Hurt So Bad.

Francoise and When Morning Comes Again, both DeShannon tunes, fit right into the burgeoning singer/songwriter scene of 1970. She closes the album hearkening back to her folk roots with a cover of Leonard Cohen’s Bird On A Wire.

The gem of these four albums though is New Arrangement, a somewhat overlooked record from the mid-70s with all but one song a DeShannon co-write and an impressive roster of musicians, including guitarists Waddy Wachtel and Jesse Ed Davis, keyboardist Larry Knechtel and Kenny Rankin, Brian and Marilyn Wilson, steel guitarist Buddy Emmons and bassist Leland Sklar on various tracks.

Michael Stewart created a beautifully restrained production, no orchestrations, and this release has five bonus tracks, all written by DeShannon.

I have this on vinyl and a previous CD release and had somewhat forgotten what an accomplished  piece of work it is. That it is most notable for Bette Davis Eyes, which has a much different arrangement than Carnes’ hit, shows how overlooked this record truly is.

All the tunes are arranged meticulously and performed beautifully by the outstanding roster of musicians. The opener, Let The Sailors Dance, is one of the few collaborations DeShannon has written with husband Randy Edelman. The Wilsons help give Boat To Sail a breathtaking vocal background that evokes southern California.

Her four collaborations with Donna Weiss are among the many highlights. Rankin’s acoustic guitar and a Latin feel by drummer Ron Tutt drives the bouncy Sweet Baby Gene, while Bette Davis Eyes has a light swing shuffle feel that turns the song completely around in tone and tempo from the Carnes version, which was actually based on one of DeShannon’s original arrangements for it. Weiss also co-wrote the moderate tempo country tunes Queen Of The Rodeo and Barefoot Boys And Barefoot Girls.

Perhaps the album’s crowning moment though is the title track, a perfect pop construction written with Glenn Ballentyne that possesses insightful lyrics and an enveloping and attractive chorus.

Others include her take on the familiar I Wanted It All, the uptempo pop-rock of Over My Head Again, both written with John Bettis, and a novelty-styled Murphy, played with an almost music hall feel. The album closes with the gorgeous ballad Dreamin’ As One.

The bonus tracks most notably feature Somebody Turn The Music On and Fire In The City, again Bettis co-writes, and Pure Natural Love, a medium tempo love song that could fit onto any albums from the mid-70s by Van Morrison, an artist with whom DeShannon also collaborated.

Here are two interesting items I recently came across. The first is a photo from The Beatles 1964 tour of the States, on which DeShannon appeared, which shows Jackie and George Harrison playing monopoly on the floor of a hotel room.

And here an irresistible performance of When You Walk In The Room from Hullabaloo. Lyp-synched but that doesn’t seem to matter.