The series of Jackie DeShannon albums on Imperial records are of consistently high quality, and it's a testament to her skills that those discs sound so great, given the amount of producers and session people who came and went over the course of these recordings. 1970s To Be Free differs from This Is Jackie DeShannon,What the World Needs Now Is Love, and For You in that, like the Put a Little Love in Your Heart album, the singer is the main composer along with her collaborators, rather than just utilizing her voice to interpret the songs of others. DeShannon's talent is such that it doesn't matter if she's singing her own material or someone else's, all these Imperial releases are very easy to listen to. "To be free" makes up the title and they are the last three words she sings from the tune that ends side two, a gospel rendition of Leonard Cohen's "Bird on a Wire" that is remarkable. It may be the best performance on an excellent collection of ten tunes and one medley. The medley consists of a unique combining of the Vanilla Fudge version of "You Keep Me Hanging On" and Little Anthony & the Imperials' hit "Hurt's So Bad." "It's So Nice" is an original by the producers Sam Russell and Irvin Hunt, and like Cohen's material, it gives this album a different mood. DeShannon's brother Randy Myers co-writes seven of the eight originals with DeShannon and Jimmy Holiday, except for the song "Francoise," which was written by DeShannon,Myers, and R. Stevens. "Francoise" is a standout and another change of pace, those changes giving the recording an interesting momentum. The lyrics are included on the album sleeve with a different photo from the session for those on the front and back cover. The inside gatefold is really interesting with the singer inside an artist's world of sunflowers and animals who all coexist peacefully with her. A frog and a butterfly reading a book together may sound psychedelic, but the pastels seem to go along with the original song "Brighton Hill," a short and bouncy pop delight. All the material clocks in under four minutes, and it is an interesting beginning chapter for the singer in the '70s, a decade which would bring her multiple label changes and "new arrangements."