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

The artist, who contributed to and helped pen Otis Redding's Sittin' On the Dock of the Bay and Wilson Pickett's In the Midnight Hour, passed away recently in the city of Nashville.

Considered among the greatest studio bands in the history of soul music, the group the MGs was the core musical unit of the influential Memphis label Stax Records and is best remembered for their 1962 track Green Onions.

Cropper also joined the John Belushi-Dan Aykroyd act The Blues Brothers in the 1970s and played on their popular rendition of Soul Man.

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

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

A cause of death was not immediately known.

A friend, Eddie Gore, mentioned he was with Cropper on Tuesday in Nashville, where the guitarist had been working on fresh material.

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

A Storied Musical Path

Ranked the runner-up for guitarist of all time by a music periodical in 1996, Cropper first found employment at Stax in 1961 at the age of 20.

A year later, the MGs were formed, featuring 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 thought of myself as a rhythm player," Cropper remarked in a past interview. "I get off on the fact that I can play something over and over, while other guitar players wouldn't consider it. They refuse to play the same lick twice."

As well as a guitarist, Cropper was a productive 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 issued by Stax from 1961 through 1970".

"We would truly spend marathon sessions in the studio," Cropper noted in an interview. "I think we had nearly 20 artists on the roster, so we had a extremely demanding schedule."