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The legendary guitarist Steve Cropper, the acclaimed guitarist with Booker T and the MGs, has left us at the age of 84.

The guitar virtuoso, who contributed to and helped pen the classic song Sittin' On the Dock of the Bay and Wilson Pickett's In the Midnight Hour, passed away recently in Nashville.

Considered among the best backing bands in soul music, the quartet Booker T & the MGs was the house band of the groundbreaking Memphis label Stax Records and is most famous for their 1962 instrumental track Green Onions.

Cropper later became a member of the John Belushi-Dan Aykroyd act The Blues Brothers in the late 1970s and played on their hit cover of Soul Man.

"Steve was a deeply admired artist, writer, and producer whose profound talent impacted millions of lives around the world," his family said in a release.

"While we feel sorrow for the loss of a husband, father, and friend, we take solace knowing that Steve will endure through his music," they continued.

A specific cause was not immediately known.

A colleague, Eddie Gore, recalled he was with Cropper recently in Nashville, where the guitarist had been working on new music.

"He's such a wonderful human," Gore commented. "We were fortunate to have him, for sure."

A Prolific Career

Ranked the second-best guitarist of all time by a British music magazine in 1996, Cropper started his career at Stax in 1961 at the age of 20.

A year later, the MGs were formed, comprising keyboardist Booker T Jones, drummer Al Jackson and bassist Lewie Steinberg - who was replaced by Donald "Duck" Dunn in 1964.

The band was honored by inclusion in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1992.

"I've always seen myself as a rhythm player," Cropper remarked in a previous conversation. "I get off on the fact that I can play something over and over, while other guitar players avoid that approach. They won't even play the same riff twice."

As well as a guitarist, Cropper was a vastly creative songwriter, and besides Dock of the Bay and In the Midnight Hour, he collaborated on Eddie Floyd's hit Knock on Wood.

According to available information, he was "integral to the majority of record released by Stax from 1961 through the end of 1970".

"We would often spend 15 hours a day in the studio," Cropper once recalled. "I think we had nearly 20 artists signed to the label, so we had a very hectic schedule."