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

The guitar virtuoso, 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 this past Wednesday in Nashville.

Considered among the finest backing bands in soul music, the four-piece band Booker T. Jones and the MGs was the house band of the influential Memphis label Stax/Volt and is best remembered for their 1962 track Green Onions.

Cropper went on to join the blues revival band The Blues Brothers in the late '70s and performed on their successful version of Soul Man.

"Steve was a cherished musician, songwriter, and producer whose extraordinary talent inspired countless people around the world," his family said in a message.

"While we grieve the loss of a husband, father, and friend, we take solace 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 recently in Nashville, where the guitarist was developing new music.

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

A Prolific Career

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

A year later, the MGs were formed, 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 entered 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 are reluctant to repeat the same phrase 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 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 15 hours a day in the studio," Cropper said. "I think we had a roster of artists we worked with, so we had a very hectic schedule."