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Esteemed musician Steve Cropper, the celebrated guitarist with the seminal soul group Booker T & the MGs, has passed away at the age of 84.

The musician, who performed on and helped pen the classic song Sittin' On the Dock of the Bay and Wilson Pickett's In the Midnight Hour, succumbed recently in Music City, Nashville.

Considered among the best backing bands in the history of soul music, the quartet Booker T. Jones and the MGs was the core musical unit of the influential Memphis label Stax Records and is primarily known for their 1962 track Green Onions.

Cropper also joined the comedy music group The Blues Brothers in the late 1970s and featured on their hit cover of Soul Man.

"Steve was a beloved musician, songwriter, and producer whose extraordinary talent inspired generations around the world," his family stated in a release.

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

A specific cause was not released at this time.

A friend, Eddie Gore, mentioned he was with Cropper just the day before in Nashville, where the guitarist was in the process of creating new songs.

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

An Illustrious Journey

Named the runner-up for 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 succeeded 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 player," Cropper explained in a past interview. "I get off on the fact that I can play something consistently, while other guitar players don't want to even know about that. They won't even play the same riff twice."

Not only was he a guitarist, Cropper was a productive songwriter, and in addition to Dock of the Bay and In the Midnight Hour, he collaborated on Eddie Floyd's hit Knock on Wood.

According to his official biography, he was "integral to nearly all record put out by Stax from late 1961 through year end 1970".

"We would often spend 15 hours a day in the studio," Cropper noted in an interview. "I think we had a roster of artists we worked with, so we had a pretty busy schedule."