Steve Cropper, the understated yet influential guitarist, songwriter and producer who anchored Booker T. and the M.G.’s at Stax Records and helped write classics including “Green Onions,” “(Sittin’ on) the Dock of the Bay” and “In the Midnight Hour,” has died. He was 84.
Pat Mitchell Worley, president and CEO of the Soulsville Foundation, said Cropper’s family told her he died Wednesday in Nashville. The foundation operates the Stax Museum of American Soul Music in Memphis on the site of the former Stax Records where Cropper spent much of his career. A cause of death was not immediately released. Longtime associate Eddie Gore said Cropper had been at a Nashville rehabilitation facility after a recent fall and had been working on new music the week before his death.
Cropper’s playing was never flashy; his spare, melodic riffs and precise rhythm work helped define the sound of Memphis soul. He was known for listening to singers and fellow musicians and shaping guitar parts to serve the song rather than call attention to himself. That collaborative approach made him an ideal member of Stax’s house band and a sought-after sideman and producer.
Born near Dora, Missouri, Cropper moved with his family to Memphis at age 9. He bought his first mail-order guitar at 14 and cited early influences that included Chuck Berry, Jimmy Reed and Chet Atkins. He was signed to Satellite Records, the precursor to Stax, as a member of an instrumental group that became the Mar-Keys; their 1961 hit “Last Night” helped launch the label.
When Satellite became Stax, Cropper and several colleagues formed Booker T. and the M.G.’s with keyboardist Booker T. Jones, bassist Donald “Duck” Dunn and drummer Al Jackson Jr. The racially integrated quartet — Jones and Jackson were Black; Dunn and Cropper white — became both hitmakers on their own with instrumentals like “Green Onions,” “Hang ‘Em High” and “Time Is Tight” and the studio backbone for many Stax records, backing artists such as Otis Redding and Sam & Dave.
Cropper played a memorable role on numerous recordings beyond the M.G.’s. Midway through the 1967 Sam & Dave hit “Soul Man,” Sam Moore shouts “Play it, Steve!” as Cropper launches a ringing riff played with a Zippo lighter — a bit he later reprised with The Blues Brothers. He also collaborated closely with Otis Redding; Cropper and Redding finished “(Sittin’ on) the Dock of the Bay” shortly before Redding’s death in a 1967 plane crash, and the song became a posthumous No. 1 hit.
He helped adapt a gospel line into the secular phrasing of “In the Midnight Hour,” and his songwriting and arranging instincts were central to many Stax hits. Fellow musicians praised his work: Keith Richards called him “perfect” and guitarists have noted how often Cropper’s parts are emulated.
Cropper was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1992 as a member of Booker T. and the M.G.’s. He later joined the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2005 and received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2007. He appeared in the films The Blues Brothers (1980) and Blues Brothers 2000 and toured with the Blues Brothers band.
He continued recording into his later years: his 2024 album Friendlytown earned a Grammy nomination, and earlier this year he received the Tennessee Governor’s Arts Award, the state’s highest arts honor.
Cropper outlived two of his original bandmates: drummer Al Jackson Jr. died in 1975 and bassist Donald “Duck” Dunn in 2012. He leaves a legacy as a musician whose unassuming style was a vital ingredient in some of the most enduring soul and rock records of the 20th century.
