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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 artist, who performed on and co-wrote the classic song Sittin' On the Dock of the Bay and the hit track In the Midnight Hour, died recently in Nashville.

Widely regarded among the finest studio bands in soul and R&B, the four-piece band the MGs was the core musical unit of the groundbreaking Memphis label Stax Records and is primarily known for their 1962 instrumental track Green Onions.

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

"Steve was a beloved musician, songwriter, and producer whose profound talent impacted millions of lives around the world," his family expressed in a statement.

"While we feel sorrow for the loss of a loved one and companion, we take solace knowing that Steve will endure through his music," they noted.

A specific cause was not immediately known.

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

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

A Prolific Career

Voted the second-best guitarist of all time by a UK publication in 1996, Cropper began working 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 entered 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 take pride in the fact that I can play something consistently, while other guitar players don't want to even know about that. They refuse to play the same lick twice."

As well as a guitarist, Cropper was a prolific songwriter, and in addition to Dock of the Bay and In the Midnight Hour, he co-wrote Eddie Floyd's hit Knock on Wood.

According to available information, he was "involved in nearly all record released by Stax from 1961 through the end of 1970".

"We would truly spend 15 hours a day in the studio," Cropper noted in an interview. "I think we had 17 or 18 artists signed to the label, so we had a extremely demanding schedule."