12 Essential Steve Cropper Songs

MEMPHIS - AUGUST 8: Guitarist Steve Cropper of the R&B band Booker T. & The MG's in the control booth at Stax Records on August 8, 1968 in Memphis, Tennessee. (Photo by Don Paulsen/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)

Steve Cropper was never a household name the way Jimi Hendrix and Eric Clapton are, but he was the guitar hero’s guitar hero. With an instantly identifiable tone, his guitar could sing (the “Play it, Steve!” intro and breakdowns of Sam and Dave’s “Soul Man”), groove (the Booker T. and the MG’s hit “Green Onions”), and build intricate, soulful architecture around the right voice (Otis Redding’s “I’ve Been Loving You Too Long”). “I don’t care about being center stage,” he once said. “I’m a band member, always been a band member.” No matter what the right song was, he knew what to play. Here are Cropper’s essential recordings.