Ticket to ride b/w Yes it is by The Beatles (Parlophone R 5265)

Easter 1965 brought the Easter school report and a new Beatles single. Luckily my marks were just good enough to scrape together enough money to buy "Ticket to ride". This single has probably the ugliest picture sleeve ever to be designed for a Beatles 45. It was a kind of press release with typed text and without a picture of the band. Some fanatics will even claim this was not a "picture sleeve" but an "art sleeve", designed by the art department of the record company without the addition of a picture of the artist(s).
A friend of mine later got the "Help!" album and I was amazed to learn from the credits on the back that the lead guitar in "Ticket" was played by Paul McCartney. I tried to imagine how George Harrison must have felt when this happened. But no doubt George played the song's main riff on his chiming 12-string Rickenbacker.
The flipside was "very close" harmony, my father even claimed it was sung flat. In a 1970s interview George Harrison sang the first line of his part and suddenly the harmonies made a lot more sense to me.
Rating: ****

Love is strange b/w Man with money by The Everly Brothers (Warner Bros WB 5649)

The Everly Brothers were the first to stir my interest in pop music. "Till I kissed you" in 1959 cemented my love for harmony vocals. Although The Beatles never mentioned them as an influence I always thought they were heavily influenced by the Everly's. "Love me do" sounded like a rejected Everly track to me when I first heard it and the Fab Four's "yeah yeah" seemed like a straight cop from "Temptation" to me. The brothers kept making good records, but they also recorded a lot of schmaltz like "Ebony Eyes". In the mid-Sixties they released a trio of fabulous singles: "That'll be the day", "The Price of love" and "Love is strange". I bought the latter, mainly because it had such a great B-side in "Man with money", which later became part of The Who's repertoire. They also released three very good albums around the same time: "Rock 'n Soul", "Beat & Soul" and "Two Yanks In England". But then they came up with "Its all over" and they sounded old hat again.
Rating: ****

No reply b/w Rock And Roll Music by The Beatles (Parlophone HHR 136)

The Americans always "milked" albums for singles and unlike the UK many countries on the European continent copied the American releases. This happened with the single "Eight days a week"/"Baby's in black". Soon after that this one was "released by public demand": the great opener of the latest Beatles album "Beatles for sale". Of course it went straight to #1.
Rating: *****

I want to hold your hand EP (extended play) by The Beatles (Odeon MOE 3746)

I fell in love with The Beatles when I heard "I want to hold your hand" for the first time late 1963. But not having a record player buying records seemed a silly thing to do. In the spring of 1965 the single wasn't available in the shops anymore, but there was this French import EP (7 inch record with four tracks) available. Not strictly speaking a single, but always good value as the price was less than double of that of a single. EP's also always came in wonderful picture sleeves in cardboard covers like mini-albums. This one contained
I want to hold your hand
It won't be long
I wanna be your man
Till there was you
Pity they didn't replace "I wanna be your man" with the original flipside of the single "This boy" as "Man" is one of the weakest Beatles songs (and mainly sung by Ringo, clearly the least of the four vocalists). But "It won't be long" was The Beatles at their best with those almost hysterical "yeah yeah" questions & answers between John (who did the lead vocal) and Paul & George. It remains one of my favourite Beatles songs of all time, so to play it just after "I want to hold your hand" was always a joy. "Till there was you" was a good opportunity to prove to my parents The Beatles could really sing and play.
Rating: *****