Joe Cocker and Udo Jürgens posthumously top the German charts

Udo Jürgens and Joe Cocker have posthumously closed out the year at the top of Germany's charts, published by GfK Entertainment.

A tribute to Jürgens' final album, "In the Midst of Life" ("Mitten im Leben"), featuring English singer-songwriter Jamie Cullum and German pop start Helene Fischer, leapt from number 19 to 6. Jürgens was in the middle of touring for the album when he died of heart failure at the age of 80 on December 21. Jürgens' original version made the biggest jump of the week, from place 92 to 23.

Jürgens' career spanned five decades and 1,000 songs. The Austrian singer and composer is the most-charted German-language artist of all time.

Not one, but two of Cocker's albums were in the Top 100. His "Greatest Hits" came in at 98 and "Fire It Up" the British rocker's 22nd studio album, originally released in 2012, jumped to number 48.

Cocker originally shot to fame with his 1968 cover of the Beatles' "With a Little Help from My Friends," which proved even more successful than the original. Years of recording and touring, which included one gig at the infamous Woodstock festival, took their toll on Cocker, who struggled with drugs and alcohol in the 1970s.

By the early 1980s he managed to turn his life around and continue his career as a hitmaker until his death on December 22 from lung cancer. He was 70 years old.

The top spot in the charts went to another longtime mainstay of the rock scene, AC/DC, and their latest album "Rock or Bust."