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Esteemed musician Steve Cropper, the renowned guitarist with the iconic band Booker T & the MGs, has passed away at the age of 84.

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

Considered among the best studio bands in soul music, the four-piece band the MGs was the resident studio band of the influential Memphis label Stax/Volt and is most famous for their 1962 instrumental track Green Onions.

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

"Steve was a beloved artist, writer, and producer whose immense talent touched generations around the world," his family stated in a release.

"While we feel sorrow for the loss of a family man and friend, we take solace knowing that Steve will endure through his music," they added.

A specific cause was not released at this time.

A friend, Eddie Gore, mentioned he was with Cropper recently in Nashville, where the guitarist had been working on new songs.

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

An Illustrious Journey

Voted the second-best guitarist of all time by a British music magazine in 1996, Cropper first found employment at Stax Records in 1961 at the age of 20.

A year later, the MGs came together, comprising organist Booker T Jones, drummer Al Jackson and bassist Lewie Steinberg - who was succeeded 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 said in a past interview. "I take pride in the fact that I can play something over and over, while other guitar players wouldn't consider it. They are reluctant to repeat the same phrase twice."

In addition to being 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 his official biography, he was "a part of the majority of record released by Stax from the fall of 1961 through year end 1970".

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