I think Stills might be the second best at his peak, but he had the least in the tank of the 4 as far as long-term artistic ideas
his stuff can be a bit out there for me. almost experimentation for the sake of experimentation. and it’s yielded some absolute genius but also some stuff i never need to hear again.
I was going to say “Alone Agin Or” reminds me of the best Moody Blues stuff, but you’ll probably find that out in ‘69 or ‘70
Neil>Stills>Crosby>Nash imo. Neil at 1 needs no explanation. Stills I think is an easy pick for second, too - CSN 1 is one of the high points of their collective musical universe and he’s the engine driving the whole thing. Couple that with Buffalo Springfield being my favorite of their early bands, how good Manassas is, and hits even if spotty initial solo records and I think he has it locked up even if he was useless after the 70s. He was a beast of a musician at his peak. The last two I probably haven’t heard enough to rank fairly. I err Crosby on the basis of If I Could Only Remember My Name being one of my all time favorite records and how interesting his CSN(Y) songs are. The Byrds > The Hollies though I’m not sure if DC can get much points for The Byrds. Nash after Deja Vu I’m really only familiar with Songs for Beginners which I think is fine but pretty slight in comparison to any of their best work. I’d be open to suggestion on what to listen to from the non Neil 3, got blind spots for sure.
listen to non CSN stuff for nash, either solo or with the hollies, and it’s kinda wild to have him anywhere below 2nd.
Kinda surprised to see nothing from Sgt. Pepper's. "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" and "Getting Better" seemed like good candidates in addition to all the good ones you talked about. Also gotta show some love for Sam & Dave's "Soul Man" lick
honestly most of magical mystery and sgt. pepper's seems so keys driven that most of those songs kinda didn't pop in the same way to me. the beatles have "won" two of the ten years I've done already haha, I'm not actively passing them over