{"id":324681,"date":"2025-12-04T11:07:08","date_gmt":"2025-12-04T11:07:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/324681\/"},"modified":"2025-12-04T11:07:08","modified_gmt":"2025-12-04T11:07:08","slug":"steve-cropper-revered-guitarist-of-booker-t-the-m-g-s-dies-at-84","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/324681\/","title":{"rendered":"Steve Cropper, Revered Guitarist of Booker T. & the M.G.\u2019s, Dies at 84"},"content":{"rendered":"

Guitarist, producer, and songwriter Steve Cropper<\/a>, who shaped the sound of Memphis soul as a member of the Stax Records house band Booker T. & the M.G.\u2019s<\/a>, has died. The Associated Press<\/a> reports. Soulsville Foundation president and CEO Pat Mitchell Worley told the AP that Cropper\u2019s family confirmed the news to her, but did not share a cause of death. He was 84.<\/p>\n

Cropper was an original member of the Stax Records house band Booker T. & the M.G.\u2019s<\/a>, alongside organist Booker T. Jones, bassist Donald \u201cDuck\u201d Dunn, and drummer Al Jackson Jr. His guitar can be heard on recordings by Otis Redding, Sam & Dave, and Carla and Rufus Thomas. In addition to backing up other artists, Booker T. and the M.G.\u2019s released instrumental records under their own name\u2014the best known of which is 1962\u2019s \u201cGreen Onions.\u201d They were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1992.<\/p>\n

Cropper was born in Missouri and raised in Memphis, where he first picked up a guitar at the age of 14. In high school, he played in a band called the Royal Spades, who were signed to Stax Records when it was still called Satellite Records. Changing their name to the Mar-Keys, the outfit became the fledgling label\u2019s first house band. They landed a hit single in 1961 with \u201cLast Night.\u201d<\/p>\n

The following year, Cropper was appointed as Stax\u2019s A&R director, and became a founding member of Booker T. and the M.G.\u2019s. After a planned recording session went awry, Cropper, Jones, Jackson Jr., and bassist Lewie Steinberg cut \u201cGreen Onions,\u201d which would go on to hit No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100.<\/p>\n

Besides playing guitar on tracks by Stax Records artists, Cropper co-wrote several songs including Otis Redding\u2019s \u201c(Sittin\u2019 On) The Dock of the Bay,\u201d Eddie Floyd\u2019s \u201cKnock on Wood,\u201d and Wilson Pickett\u2019s \u201cIn the Midnight Hour.\u201d He\u2019s mentioned by name in Sam & Dave\u2019s 1967 song \u201cSoul Man,\u201d when Sam Moore ad-libs, \u201cPlay it, Steve!\u201d<\/p>\n

After releasing his debut solo album With a Little Help from My Friends in 1969, Cropper left Stax the following year. He then founded Trans-Maximus (TMI) Studios in Memphis, going on to produce albums for John Prine and Tower of Power and play guitar for Ringo Starr and Rod Stewart. In the late \u201970s, Cropper began to feature prominently in John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd\u2019s Blues Brothers Band, leading to appearances on five albums and in two movies. He later reunited with the Booker T. and the M.G.\u2019s for various performances. Cropper\u2019s last solo record, Friendlytown, arrived last year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Guitarist, producer, and songwriter Steve Cropper, who shaped the sound of Memphis soul as a member of the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":324682,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[49,48,361,75,2385],"class_list":{"0":"post-324681","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-celebrities","11":"tag-entertainment","12":"tag-obituary"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/324681","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=324681"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/324681\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/324682"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=324681"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=324681"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=324681"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}