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

The musician, 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 on Wednesday in Music City, Nashville.

Considered among the greatest studio bands in soul music, the four-piece band Booker T. Jones and the MGs was the house band of the historic Memphis label Stax and is most famous for their 1962 track Green Onions.

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

"Steve was a beloved guitarist, composer, and producer whose extraordinary talent touched millions of lives around the world," his family expressed in a release.

"While we mourn the loss of a husband, father, and friend, we find comfort knowing that Steve will live forever through his music," they added.

A specific cause was not released at this time.

A friend, Eddie Gore, stated he was with Cropper on Tuesday in Nashville, where the guitarist was developing new music.

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

An Illustrious Journey

Ranked the second-best guitarist of all time by a music periodical in 1996, Cropper started his career at Stax Records in 1961 at the age of 20.

A year later, the MGs were founded, consisting of 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 thought of myself as a rhythm player," Cropper explained in a previous conversation. "I get off on the fact that I can play something consistently, while other guitar players don't want to even know about that. They won't even play the same phrase twice."

As well as a guitarist, Cropper was a productive songwriter, and besides Dock of the Bay and In the Midnight Hour, he helped write Eddie Floyd's hit Knock on Wood.

According to available information, he was "a part of nearly all record released by Stax from 1961 through year end 1970".

"We would literally spend long days in the studio," Cropper said. "I think we had a roster of artists we worked with, so we had a pretty busy schedule."