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I probably should have included the singles from A Hard Day's Night ("Can't Buy Me Love"/"You Can't Do That" and "A Hard Day's Night"/"Things We Said Today") in the list above, considering many people (including me) consider it their best early album (with the early albums including everything up through Beatles for Sale, maybe Help!). My bad on that.
To answer my own question, it is a very, very tough choice between "Day Tripper"/"We Can Work It Out", "Paperback Writer"/"Rain", and "Strawberry Fields Forever"/"Penny Lane" (with an honorable mention for "I Feel Fine"/"She's a Woman"). The Fab Four's output from late 1965 to early 1967 (all 3 of the aforementioned singles, plus Rubber Soul and Revolver, arguably their 2 best albums) is nothing less than astonishing even by their lofty standards. I ultimately went with late 1965 by a tiny margin over mid-1966, but all 4 of those songs ("Day Tripper", "We Can Work It Out", "Paperback Writer", and "Rain") are among the Beatles' very best songs, at least to my ears.
FWIW, Ringo Starr considers "Rain" to contain his best drum playing while he was with the Beatles.
Nice idea for a poll. I'd have to concur with Chip72, but I'll place Strawberry Fields Forever/Penny Lane slightly ahead of the rest. Followed closely by We Can Work it Out/Day Tripper & Hey Jude/Revolution. The Beatles were known for putting incredibly strong songs as B-sides. Sometimes I actually like the B-side more than the A-side, as in Get Back/Don't Let Me Down and Paperback Writer/Rain.
A Hard Day's Night is another single I never grow tired of, an incredible amount of positive, almost euphoric energy in that tune. The lyrics are a little basic, but you have to consider they wrote the tune in one evening based on Dick Lester's request for a title song for their movie (which Ringo had named). You can tell they were having a great time!
I'm pretty sure it was a single, "Anna", maybe the other side was "Chains"? But I love Lennon's vocal on "Anna", great.
Both of those songs, which both are found on their first album Please Please Me, were never released as singles.
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