“PLAY IT, STEVE!” The Colossal Impact of the Late, Great Steve Cropper

Dec 23, 2025 – Profonde Musique

Earlier this month, we learned of Steve Cropper’s passing at 84. It is a spectacular understatement to cite his enormous imprint on the world of popular music in the 20th century. If Cropper had merely been an elite and influential guitarist, which he most certainly was, he would merit note, but as a maker of song – composer, arranger, and producer – the prolific Missourian by way of Memphis put his stamp on some of the most important American music ever created. Cropper, who also found time to discover and develop raw and unique talent, was the genius “behind” greatness, a right-hand man, a pillar of “sound” and the godfather of much of the Memphis Soul that permeated pop culture forevermore.   

 I am confident in writing that Steve Cropper might be the most pertinent White musician of the rock and roll era behind Elvis Presley. But unlike the purported King of Rock and Roll he lifted others up to be stars, while maintaining a dedication to the Black origins of the music. This begins with Stax Records, a Memphis label/studio that emerged from the wellspring of Sam Phillips’s Sun Records (Howlin’ Wolf, Elvis, Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee Lewis, Johnny Cash, to name a few), and a reflection of the northern blues purists at Chess Records (Muddy Waters, Willi Dixon, Etta James, Chuck Berry, etc) in Chicago. Like Chess’s Leonard and Phil Chess, Jim Stewart and Estelle Axton, made Stax the epicenter of the musical melting pot of the Jim Crow South with an integrated staff of gifted and dedicated enthusiasts. Through their efforts, Stax gave rise to a musical revolution of soul and rock and roll unlike any other in the early 1960s.

Like many labels at the time, Stax boasted a house band. This was the indominable Booker T. & the M.G.s with Cropper on guitar, by way of the integrated rhythm and blues outfit, the Mar-Keys. This group of tight knit studio and performance mavens also included bandleader, Booker T. Jones on Hammond organ, original bassist Lewie Steinberg, later replaced by the legendary Donald “Duck” Dunne, and one of the most significant drummers of the genre, the great Al Jackson Jr. This incredible lineup of musicians was the bedrock of Stax and what became a sonic revolution. Cropper was just 20 when he joined this august gathering and would soon elevate into the label’s A & R man.

After the M.G.s scored an unlikely Top Ten hit in 1962 with their cooly languid instrumental, “Green Onions,” Cropper was a ubiquitous presence at Stax and thus the Memphis scene, becoming a star producer and session cat prized by the industry, so much so that the Beatles had sought to work with him until the normal music biz red tape scuttled what we can only imagine as a dream colab. Nevertheless, former Beatle, Ringo Starr, along with Rod Stewart, John Prine, Jeff Beck, and Band drummer/vocalist Levon Helm came calling, as did the fabulous collection of rhythm & blues musicians that made up the Blues Brothers touring band in the late 1970s, featured in the classic 1980 film of the same name. But when discussing Steve Cropper, it comes down to his position behind the console, often gripping his 1956 Fender Esquire or blonde Fender Telecaster, where he composed, arranged, and recorded the legendary voices of Otis Redding, Wilson Pickett, and Sam & Dave.

The story of Steve and Otis is a grand one, much of it depicted in spectacular fashion in arguably the finest book written about American music, Peter Guralnick’s masterful, Sweet Soul Music.

Otis Redding was never supposed to record at Stax. The same year “Green Onions” was tracked, he strode into the growing label’s studio as merely a roadie, setting up for Atlantic Records R&B guitarist/singer, Johnny Jenkins, who, according to those in the room, did not impress Cropper. Instinct proved to be Cropper’s finest talent, as he looked at the burly figure in the corner of the control room and suggested Redding take a stab at the vocals for “Hey, Hey, Baby,” the song at hand. It was better than what Jenkins was laying down, for sure, but when Cropper heard Redding sing his own song, “These Arms of Mine” a cappella, he immediately readied the M.G.s and they cut the track on the spot. This is the recording that became Redding’s first foray into inventing the Memphis Sound and launching a partnership for the ages.

Over the next five years, Redding and Cropper became unstoppable, beginning with the 1964 Top 10 R&B standard, “Mr. Pitiful,” which displayed the soul singer’s crossover protentional, reaching #41 on pop charts. Soon, there was the blues ballad, “I’ve Been Loving You Too Long (To Stop Now),” covered famously by Ike & Tina Turner, then “Respect,” a song Aretha Franklin remade and tore up the charts, and finally, the Redding/Cropper masterpiece, “(Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay,” which rose to #1 worldwide, after Redding’s tragic death from an airplane crash in December of 1968. He was only 26.

But before his death, Redding’s influence on rock/pop/soul music was wide-ranging, becoming the first Black artist to appear at Bill Graham’s iconic Filmore West, and as a result of his incendiary shows there, performed the centerpiece set at the Monterey Pop Festival that became the first rock concert film, Monterey Pop. The Rolling Stones would forever alter their live version of “I Can’t Get No Satisfaction” after the M.G.s, with Cropper right there backing Redding on a blistering version, which featured the horns that Keith Richards had initially envisioned for the song.

Cropper and the M.G.s were also the backbone of the dynamic Sam & Dave (Sam Moore and Dave Prader), a live R&B act of enormous energy, captured forevermore in hits like “Soul Man,” co-written with Cropper, in which Moore famously shouts, “Play it, Steve!” on the recording. This was later revived by Saturday Night Live comedian/actor, John Belushi in his turn as Joliet Jake Blues with his “brother, Elwood, played with monosyllabic glee by fellow SNL pal, Dan Akroyd, on the live Briefcase Full of Blues, a version that once again featured Cropper on guitar in 1978. And although Cropper did not write as diligently or as prolifically as he did with Redding, the M.G.s featuring his guitar chops are all over Sam & Dave’s many hits, “Hold On, I’m Coming,” “I Thank You,” and the soaring ballad, “When Something Is Wrong with My Baby.”

But perhaps Steve Cropper’s most lasting and influential turn as a songwriter, arranger and producer, is his collaboration with the great blues-shouter, Wilson Pickett on “In the Midnight Hour,” one of the most imitated and covered soul songs ever. The swing-addled sashaying backbeat and rolling bass/guitar groove conceived in a Memphis hotel room between the two men, was brought to life by the M.G.s, with inexorable charm by drummer Al Jackson Jr., whose insouciant style laid the groundwork for the genre’s most enduring backbeats. “In the Midnight Hour” was no mere hit, it was a seismic explosion in 1965, amidst the British Invasion and Motown dominance.

Steve Cropper loved rhythm and blues like few others, and his adoration was poured into his playing on those recordings forever. His pop sensibilities brought out the best in the acts he worked with, never taking from them the instincts and talents they displayed, and understanding what it meant to support and buttress their goals for the best sounding templates of their most cherished art. Like all the seminal sounds of popular music in the latter half of the American Century, Cropper’s canon stands the test of time, forever cementing him in the annals of the greats of any era.