Steve Cropper, the guitarist and songwriter whose understated brilliance helped shape the sound of Memphis soul music, has died at the age of 84.
The musician passed away on Wednesday in Nashville, according to Pat Mitchell Worley, president and CEO of the Soulsville Foundation, who said Mr Cropper’s family had informed her of his death.
Mr Cropper was a founding member of Booker T. and the MG’s and co-wrote some of the most enduring songs in popular music, including Green Onions, (Sittin’ on) the Dock of the Bay and In the Midnight Hour.
No cause of death has been confirmed. Longtime associate Eddie Gore revealed he had visited Mr Cropper on Tuesday at a Nashville rehabilitation facility, where the guitarist had been recovering from a recent fall.
Steve Cropper died following a fall
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“He’s such a good human,” Mr Gore said. “We were blessed to have him, for sure.”
Mr Cropper’s association with Stax Records predated the label’s famous name, having joined when it was still known as Satellite Records, founded by Jim Stewart and Estelle Axton in 1957.
His instrumental group the Royal Spades, later renamed the Mar-Keys, scored an early hit with Last Night before evolving into Booker T. and the MG’s alongside keyboard player Booker T. Jones, bassist Donald “Duck” Dunn and drummer Al Jackson.
The racially integrated group was unusual for its era, with Mr Jones and Mr Jackson being Black while Mr Cropper and Mr Dunn were white.
Steve Cropper, Booker T Jones, Donald ‘Duck’ Dunn and Al Jackson Jr
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“When you walked in the door at Stax, there was absolutely no colour,” Mr Cropper told the Associated Press in 2020. “We were all there for the same reason – to get a hit record.”
The band became so highly regarded that artists from outside Stax sought them out, including Wilson Pickett, whom Atlantic Records executive Jerry Wexler brought to Memphis in the mid-1960s.
Mr Cropper admitted at a 2015 National Music Publishers Association event that he had never heard of Pickett before their collaboration, but discovered a gospel recording containing the line “I’ll see my Jesus in the midnight hour” and adapted it into a secular classic.
“The man up there has been forgiving me for this ever since!” he joked.
Steve Cropper in 1991
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Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards offered a succinct assessment of Mr Cropper’s abilities: “Perfect, man.”
Mr Cropper’s name was immortalised in the 1967 Sam & Dave hit Soul Man, when singer Sam Moore calls out “Play it, Steve!” as Mr Cropper delivers a distinctive riff created using a Zippo lighter.
The guitarist entered the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1992 alongside his Booker T. and the MG’s bandmates, the same year the surviving members performed at an all-star Bob Dylan tribute at Madison Square Garden.
Rolling Stone magazine placed him at number 39 on its list of the 100 Greatest Guitarists, describing him as “the secret ingredient in some of the greatest rock and soul songs.”
Steve Cropper in 1967
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The Songwriters Hall of Fame inducted him in 2005, followed by a Grammy Award for lifetime achievement two years later.
Cropper remained active until the end, with his 2024 album Friendlytown earning a Grammy nomination. Earlier this year, he received the Tennessee Governor’s Arts Award, the state’s highest artistic honour.
Mr Jones is now the sole surviving member of Booker T. and the MG’s.