Lennon and McCartney are still in the Guiness Book of Records for being the most prolific songwriting duo ever. Or they were last time I looked.
IMO, the reason they were so talented was that one was an extraordinary lyricist and the other was extraordinarily talented at musical arrangements.
You can listen to their subsequent work after their breakup and tell which was which.
What you say is true, Lennon wrote better lyrics and McCartney was the better arranger. Even so, Lennon wrote Imagine solo and Mc wrote Maybe I'm Amazed solo. Each of them as solo artists had prolific and very successful careers. To return to the original thread, only Clapton has been successful post cream, though I love "/Songs for a Tailor"--Bruce's critically acclaimed but commercially unsuccessful album.
IMO, the reason they were so talented was that one was an extraordinary lyricist and the other was extraordinarily talented at musical arrangements.
Without George Martin the Beatles would never have gone has far as they did. He produced their songs and played on many of their songs. He was the one who wrote the scores of the strings and he often told who to play what. Often times the Beatles would come into the studio with skeletons of songs and George was the one who helped them attain their unique sound. No George Martin, a different Beatles.