Die Wildecker Herzbuben!

In my continued researches into German popular culture, my latest discovery is “die Wildecker Herzbuben”, two incredibly huge guys, in traditional Trachterkleidung, who sing Heimatmusik and play a variety of brass instruments (rather beautifully). Die Wildecker Herzbuben (Lover Boys from Wildeck) have been making CDs and appearing on the variety shows popular on TV for some time now. In live performance they inevitably sing their biggest hit, “Herzilein” (see sample lyrics at end of this post). Both Wolfgang and Wilfried have very nice voices and, especially with “Herzilein” cajole their, mostly middle-aged and above studio audiences into singing along with the familiar chorus and gently swaying back and forth in a sort of, kinder, gentler version of beer hall sing-a-longs. Quite nice, actually. They are a couple of good-natured, good-ole-boys, German-style! Naturally, I assumed they were Bavarians, but it turns out that Wildeck is a small town south of Göttingen and east of Erfurt, on the border between Land Essen and Land Thüringen, so very much in central Germany and not Bayerisch at all!

So—here the words to the all-important refrain of the Wildecker Herzbuben megahit, “Herzilein”! Singt mit uns bitte!

Herzilein
du musst nicht traurig sein
ich weiss
du bist nicht gern allein
und schuld war doch nur der Wein

-und du sagst sicher:

Spatzilein
ich werd' dir noch einmal verzeih'n.
Die Hauptsache ist
du kommst heim
- so kann nur ein Engel sein.