His unexpected death of a stroke at age 45 on March 24, 2016, shocked the German music scene and public. Now Roger Cicero is being honored with a release on Friday of his greatest hits.

Titled "Glück ist leicht - Das Beste von 2006-2016" (Happiness is Easy - The Best from 2006-2016), the album includes the first release of Cicero's last recording, "Eine Nummer zu gross" (One Size Too Big). The song was co-written by Cicero and his friend and producer Roland Spremberg, who in an interview with the German news agency dpa observed, "The piece was actually planned for his next album. The singing you hear was from a demo recording. But with Roger being the way he was, it was already perfect."

In a second previously unreleased track, Cicero is heard covering a song by German rock band Sportfreunde Stiller.

With his trademark hat and revival of a 1940s big band sound, Roger Cicero combined jazz and popular music. Song texts by Frank Ramond contributed to another Cicero trademark: that of the sometimes self-deprecating macho humorously perplexed by the modern equality of the sexes.

The 2015 album "The Roger Cicero Jazz Experience," in which the singer returned to his roots as a jazz vocalist, received a posthumous Echo Award, and the CD "Cicero Sings Sinatra," recorded live in Hamburg in 2015, recently attained gold status with over 100,000 units sold.

rf/kbm (with dpa)