Cropper, also known as the Colonel, was a musical mainstay of the influential Stax Records label. He also co-wrote soul songs such as "In the Midnight Hour," "Soulsville, USA," "Green Onions," and "Time is Tight" - songs that helped pave the way for soul music's triumphant march in the United States.
In addition, Cropper co-wrote Otis Redding's masterpiece "(Sittin on) the dock of the bay", which was released weeks after Redding and several band members were tragically killed in a plane crash near Truax Field in Madison, USA, in December 1967.
The song has since come to define an era in the United States.
Cropper was also the anchor of the Memphis band Booker T and the MG's, which backed several of the great soul artists. He was known for a sparse yet rhythmically intense playing style that came to characterize the Memphis soul sound.
Steve Cropper also became an unexpected film celebrity as a band member of the Blues Brothers in the 1980 film of the same name, starring John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd.
In the film, Cropper repeated a guitar riff he used when the hit song "Soul Man" was recorded in 1967. Singer Sam Moore shouted to Cropper during the recording to "play on!" whereupon Cropper drew a Zippo lighter across the strings of the guitar neck to get the right, sliding, metallic sound, reports the AP news agency.
Steven Lee Cropper was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in New York in 2005, and was awarded a Grammy for lifetime achievement two years later. He died in Nashville.
