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

The musician, who contributed to and collaborated on writing the classic song Sittin' On the Dock of the Bay and the hit track In the Midnight Hour, died recently in Music City, Nashville.

Considered among the finest studio bands in soul and R&B, the quartet Booker T. Jones and the MGs was the house band of the influential Memphis label Stax/Volt and is most famous for their 1962 track Green Onions.

Cropper also joined the blues revival band The Blues Brothers in the late 1970s and featured on their successful version of Soul Man.

"Steve was a cherished guitarist, composer, and producer whose extraordinary talent impacted millions of lives around the world," his family said in a statement.

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

A specific cause was not immediately known.

A colleague, Eddie Gore, stated he was with Cropper recently in Nashville, where the guitarist was developing new songs.

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

A Storied Musical Path

Ranked the number two guitarist of all time by a British music magazine in 1996, Cropper first found employment at the Stax label in 1961 at the age of 20.

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

The band was entered into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1992.

"I've always thought of myself as a rhythm guitarist," Cropper explained in a previous conversation. "I take pride in the fact that I can play something repeatedly, while other guitar players avoid that approach. They won't even play the same lick twice."

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

According to historical accounts, he was "a part of the majority of record released by Stax from 1961 through the end of 1970".

"We would literally spend long days in the studio," Cropper said. "I think we had a roster of artists on the roster, so we had a extremely demanding schedule."