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

The guitar virtuoso, who played on and co-wrote Otis Redding's Sittin' On the Dock of the Bay and the hit track In the Midnight Hour, died this past Wednesday in the city of Nashville.

Often cited among the greatest backing bands in the history of soul music, the quartet Booker T & the MGs was the core musical unit of the historic Memphis label Stax and is best remembered for their classic 1962 track Green Onions.

Cropper went on to join the John Belushi-Dan Aykroyd act The Blues Brothers in the late '70s and performed on their successful version of Soul Man.

"Steve was a beloved musician, songwriter, and producer whose extraordinary talent impacted millions of lives around the world," his family said in a release.

"While we mourn the loss of a loved one and companion, we are consoled knowing that Steve will live forever through his music," they added.

A cause of death was not released at this time.

An associate, Eddie Gore, mentioned he was with Cropper on Tuesday in Nashville, where the guitarist was developing fresh material.

"He's such a wonderful human," Gore remarked. "We were lucky 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 Stax in 1961 at the age of 20.

A year later, the MGs were founded, featuring keyboardist 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 seen myself as a player who focuses on rhythm," Cropper said in a past interview. "I get off on the fact that I can play something over and over, while other guitar players don't want to even know about that. They won't even play the same riff twice."

As well as a guitarist, Cropper was a productive 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 his official biography, he was "involved in the majority of record put out by Stax from the fall of 1961 through the end of 1970".

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