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Esteemed musician Steve Cropper, the celebrated guitarist with the iconic band Booker T & the MGs, has died 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 finest studio bands in soul and R&B, the group Booker T. Jones and the MGs was the resident studio band of the historic Memphis label Stax/Volt and is best remembered for their classic 1962 track Green Onions.

Cropper went on to join the comedy music group The Blues Brothers in the late '70s and performed on their popular rendition of Soul Man.

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

"While we feel sorrow for the loss of a husband, father, and friend, we are consoled knowing that Steve will be remembered through his music," they added.

A specific cause was not immediately known.

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

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

A Storied Musical Path

Named the number two guitarist of all time by a music periodical in 1996, Cropper began working at Stax Records 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 entered into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1992.

"I've always seen myself as a rhythm guitarist," Cropper explained in a previous conversation. "I take pride in 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 vastly creative songwriter, and in addition to 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 released by Stax from the fall of 1961 through 1970".

"We would truly spend marathon sessions in the studio," Cropper said. "I think we had 17 or 18 artists signed to the label, so we had a very hectic schedule."