Jim Weatherly: Midnight Train to Georgia songwriter dies aged 77

US country singer-songwriter Jim Weatherly, best known for writing 1970s hit Midnight Train to Georgia, has died aged 77, his family say.

Weatherly passed away at his home near Nashville, Tennessee, on Wednesday.

Music publisher and friend Charlie Monk said the family attributed his death to natural causes, the Tennessean website reports.

Weatherly released nearly a dozen studio albums during his five-decade career.

In his student years, the singer was a gifted quarterback for the University of Mississippi's American football team.

But later in the 1960s he decided to leave sport and focus on music in Los Angeles.

Midnight Train to Georgia - a number one hit for Gladys Knight & the Pips in 1973 - went on to win a Grammy Award, and was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1999.

A number of American artists, including Aretha Franklin, later recorded their own versions of the popular song.

Weatherly's biggest solo success was I'll Still Love You, but he also penned more Gladys Knight hits, including Neither One of Us Wants to Be the First to Say Goodbye, and You're the Best Thing (That Ever Happened to Me).

He recorded with a range of high-profile stars, including Neil Diamond, Kenny Rogers, Garth Brooks and Kenny Chesney.