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

The guitar virtuoso, who played on and collaborated on writing the classic song Sittin' On the Dock of the Bay and the hit track In the Midnight Hour, succumbed recently in Music City, Nashville.

Often cited among the greatest studio bands in the history of soul music, the group Booker T & the MGs was the resident studio band of the influential Memphis label Stax and is most famous for their 1962 instrumental track Green Onions.

Cropper went on to join the comedy music group The Blues Brothers in the 1970s and performed on their successful version of Soul Man.

"Steve was a beloved artist, writer, and producer whose extraordinary talent impacted generations around the world," his family said in a statement.

"While we grieve 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.

An associate, Eddie Gore, stated he was with Cropper just the day before in Nashville, where the guitarist had been working on new songs.

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

A Storied Musical Path

Voted the runner-up for guitarist of all time by a British music magazine in 1996, Cropper began working at Stax in 1961 at the age of 20.

A year later, the MGs were founded, consisting of 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 seen myself as a rhythm player," Cropper explained in a past interview. "I take pride in the fact that I can play something consistently, while other guitar players avoid that approach. They won't even play the same lick twice."

In addition to being a guitarist, Cropper was a prolific songwriter, and alongside 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 the majority of record released by Stax from the fall of 1961 through 1970".

"We would truly spend marathon sessions in the studio," Cropper once recalled. "I think we had nearly 20 artists we worked with, so we had a extremely demanding schedule."