So far I’ve written exclusively about songs that appear on The Beatles’ albums, and lord knows there are enough of those to keep these Beatles Weekends going for months. But I’m turning my attention today to one of the band’s non-album singles.

Back in the day, artists would release songs between albums, probably to keep themselves on the audience’s radar. Somewhere along the line that practice fell by the wayside and singles were treated as previews of upcoming albums. Some artists still keep up the practice — Belle and Sebastian released all of their singles with non-album cuts for years — and in the Internet age, more and more artists have taken to releasing one-off tracks on their Web sites.

The list of Beatles non-album tracks contains some of their best work. Those songs were released on two volumes called Past Masters in both the original CD format and as part of the newly remastered series. The 30 or so songs on those albums could be divvied up into a couple of albums that would rival the band’s best work.

I’m talking about songs such as ‘Hey Jude,’ ‘Revolution,’ ‘Day Tripper,’ ‘We Can Work It Out,’ ‘Lady Madonna’ and ‘I Feel Fine.’ True classics.

Among the best of them is ‘Paperback Writer,’ a Paul-penned track about a frustrated wannabe novelist. It’s notable for its use of the bass guitar, which serves as the lead instrument during the verses, and it has a killer guitar hook as well. The art on the single (see above) was the first appearance of the controversial butchered baby picture that caused such a stir in the United States (and was eventually pulled).

The clip below was released as a promotion for the single and can be considered one of the very first music videos.