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The legendary guitarist Steve Cropper, the acclaimed guitarist with the seminal soul group Booker T & the MGs, has passed away at the age of 84.

The musician, who played on and helped pen the classic song Sittin' On the Dock of the Bay and the hit track In the Midnight Hour, died this past Wednesday in the city of Nashville.

Considered among the finest studio bands in soul and R&B, the four-piece band Booker T & the MGs was the house band of the groundbreaking Memphis label Stax and is best remembered for their classic 1962 track Green Onions.

Cropper also joined the blues revival band The Blues Brothers in the late 1970s and played on their hit cover of Soul Man.

"Steve was a beloved guitarist, composer, and producer whose profound talent inspired millions of lives around the world," his family stated in a message.

"While we mourn the loss of a loved one and companion, we take solace knowing that Steve will be remembered through his music," they noted.

A cause of death was not immediately known.

A friend, Eddie Gore, stated he was with Cropper recently in Nashville, where the guitarist was in the process of creating fresh material.

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

An Illustrious Journey

Named 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 were founded, comprising organist Booker T Jones, drummer Al Jackson and bassist Lewie Steinberg - who was replaced by Donald "Duck" Dunn in 1964.

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

"I've always thought of myself as a player who focuses on rhythm," Cropper explained in a previous conversation. "I get off on the fact that I can play something over and over, while other guitar players wouldn't consider it. They won't even play the same phrase twice."

As well as a guitarist, Cropper was a prolific 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 "involved in the majority of record released by Stax from the fall of 1961 through 1970".

"We would truly spend 15 hours a day in the studio," Cropper once recalled. "I think we had 17 or 18 artists we worked with, so we had a very hectic schedule."