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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 co-wrote Otis Redding's Sittin' On the Dock of the Bay and Wilson Pickett's In the Midnight Hour, succumbed on Wednesday in Music City, Nashville.

Widely regarded among the greatest studio bands in the history of soul music, the quartet Booker T & the MGs was the resident studio band of the historic Memphis label Stax Records and is best remembered for their classic 1962 track Green Onions.

Cropper later became a member of the blues revival band The Blues Brothers in the late '70s and played on their popular rendition of Soul Man.

"Steve was a beloved musician, songwriter, and producer whose profound 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 take solace knowing that Steve will live forever through his music," they continued.

A cause of death was not immediately known.

A friend, Eddie Gore, mentioned he was with Cropper recently in Nashville, where the guitarist was in the process of creating new songs.

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

A Prolific Career

Named the number two guitarist of all time by a music periodical in 1996, Cropper first found employment at the Stax label in 1961 at the age of 20.

A year later, the MGs came together, consisting of organist Booker T Jones, drummer Al Jackson and bassist Lewie Steinberg - who was succeeded by Donald "Duck" Dunn in 1964.

The band was honored by inclusion in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1992.

"I've always thought of 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 consistently, while other guitar players wouldn't consider it. They won't even play the same lick twice."

Not only was he a guitarist, Cropper was a prolific songwriter, and in addition to Dock of the Bay and In the Midnight Hour, he helped write Eddie Floyd's hit Knock on Wood.

According to historical accounts, he was "involved in nearly all record put out by Stax from the fall of 1961 through the end of 1970".

"We would literally spend long days in the studio," Cropper said. "I think we had nearly 20 artists we worked with, so we had a very hectic schedule."