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

The musician, who contributed to and collaborated on writing Otis Redding's Sittin' On the Dock of the Bay and the hit track In the Midnight Hour, passed away recently in Music City, Nashville.

Considered among the greatest backing bands in soul music, the quartet the MGs was the resident studio band of the influential Memphis label Stax Records and is most famous for their classic 1962 track Green Onions.

Cropper also joined the comedy music group The Blues Brothers in the late '70s and played on their successful version of Soul Man.

"Steve was a cherished artist, writer, and producer whose profound talent impacted countless people around the world," his family stated in a release.

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

A specific cause was not released at this time.

A friend, Eddie Gore, recalled he was with Cropper recently in Nashville, where the guitarist was in the process of creating new music.

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

A Storied Musical Path

Named the number two guitarist of all time by a British music magazine in 1996, Cropper began working at Stax Records in 1961 at the age of 20.

A year later, the MGs were formed, featuring keyboardist Booker T Jones, drummer Al Jackson and bassist Lewie Steinberg - who was succeeded 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 thought of myself as a rhythm guitarist," Cropper remarked in a past interview. "I take pride in the fact that I can play something over and over, while other guitar players avoid that approach. They are reluctant to repeat the same lick twice."

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

According to available information, he was "a part of nearly all record put out by Stax from 1961 through year end 1970".

"We would truly spend marathon sessions in the studio," Cropper once recalled. "I think we had 17 or 18 artists on the roster, so we had a very hectic schedule."