Wise Guys (band)

This article is about a German a cappella band from Cologne called Wise Guys. There is also an English hip-hop band called The Wiseguys.

Wise Guys
The Wise Guys 2009 in Cologne
Background information
Origin	Cologne, Germany
Genres	a cappella, pop
Years active	1995–present
Labels	EMI, Pavement, Universal Music Group
Website	http://www.wiseguys.de/
Members
Daniel (Dän) Dickopf, Edzard (Eddi) Hüneke, Marc(Sari) Sahr, Ferenc Husta, Nils Olfert
Past members
Christoph Tettinger, Clemens Tewinkel

The Wise Guys are a band that began in early 1990 in Cologne, Germany. They are an a cappella group.

History of the Group

Apart from Ferenc Husta and Nils Olfert, the members all attended the Hildegard-von-Bingen-Gymnasium in Cologne from 1981 to 1990. With their schoolmates Clemens Tewinkel and Christoph Tettinger, who also founded a brass band with them, they formed a rock band. At a school event, the band performed a single A Cappella song.

After graduating from high school with their A-levels (Abitur) in 1990, the group have focussed on A Cappella songs. They soon named themselves the "Wise Guys". Eddi's (Edzard's) 18-month alternative service for conscientious objectors in Brussels left the group as a quartet. In the meantime, the other four joined the Ersten Kölner Barbershop Choir. In early 1994 the group were placed third in a Barbershop Quartet competition; however, this type of music was not representative of their later work.

When Christoph Tettinger could no longer sing for professional reasons, Ferenc Husta joined the group in April 1995 as the bass voice. Christoph Tettinger became the group manager.

After their first album "Dut-Dut-Duah!" (1994), which was mostly in English, along with two cover songs, the band concentrated on German language, rhythm-based compositions with intelligent and often funny lyrics. Since 1997 the Wise Guys have turned professional. In the same year, the band released their third album "Alles im grünen Bereich" which signalled the beginning of their work with producer Uwe Baltrusch. Their following album was with EMI. With their Live-Album (2000), the band moved to Pavement Records.

With the song and videoclip from "Jetzt ist Sommer" and the album "Ganz weit vorne", the band achieved wider recognition. Their following album reached the top of the charts on Media-Control-Charts; the 2006 album "Radio" opened in third place, only behind Red Hot Chili Peppers and Silbermond.

Because of their mainly German songs most of their concerts are in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. The exceptions are the concerts in USA, Canada, Poland, Luxemburg, and London.

The usual tours get enriched by big events like "Tanzbrunnen", "Totalnacht", and "Spezialnacht", festivals taking place in Cologne. In 2001 they got the world record at the concert on "Tanzbrunnen" (big area for concerts in Cologne) with 12,500 viewers. Their open air concerts at the "evangelischer Kirchentag" 2005, 2007 and 2009 (periodic Protestant church congress) were visited by 35,000, 70,000, and 65,000 viewers respectively.

Many high school German classes in the United States and Brazil use their music to aid classroom lessons.^{[citation needed]}

Clemens left the band at the end of year 2008. The rest of the group wanted to maintain the Wise Guys and continue their work. On October 30, 2008 they presented Nils Olfert as their new band member. The first concert in the new formation took place on January 8, 2009.

Current formation

• 

  Ferenc Husta

• 

  Edzard „Eddi“ Hüneke

• 

  Marc „Sari“ Sahr

• 

  Nils Olfert

• 

  Daniel „Dän“ Dickopf

Discography

Protestant Church Congress 2007

Albums

• 1994 - Dut-Dut-Duah! [--] (Dut-Dut-Duah!)
• 1996 - Haarige Zeiten [--] (Difficult Times [lit. Hairy Times])
• 1997 - Alles im grünen Bereich [--] (Everything OK [lit. Everything in the Green Zone])
• 1999 - Skandal [--] (Scandal)
• 2000 - Live [93] (Live)
• 2001 - Ganz weit vorne [49] (Right in Front)
• 2003 - Klartext [10] (Straight Talk)
• 2004 - Wo der Pfeffer wächst [13] (Long Way Off [lit. Where the Pepper Grows])
• 2006 - Radio [3] (Radio)
• 2008 - frei! [2] (free!)
• 2010 - Klassenfahrt [--] (School Trip) (GER: #2)

Singles and EPs

(Numbers in brackets indicate highest position achieved on the German Music Hits List.)

• 1996 - (Die Frau hat) Rhythmus [--] ([The Woman's Got] Rhythm)
• 1997 - Alles Banane [--] (Everything in Order [lit. It's all Bananas])
• 1999 - Nein, Nein, Nein [--] (No, No, No)
• 2000 - Die Heldensage vom heiligen Ewald [--] (The Heroic Saga of Saint Ewald)
• 2001 - Höher Schneller Weiter (Projektsingle) [--] (Higher, faster, further)
• 2001 - Jetzt ist Sommer [78] (It's Summer Now)
• 2001 - Wenn sie tanzt [--] (When She Dances)
• 2002 - Kinder [--] (Children)
• 2004 - Früher (Mini-Album) [51] (In Past Times)
• 2005 - Weltmeister (Mini-Album) [38] (World Champion)
• 2006 - Klinsi, warum hast du das getan? [published as a single track at the iTunes Music Store] (Klinsi, why did you do this?)

DVDs

• 2003 - Wise Guys - die DVD
• 2005 - Wise Guys Spezialnacht Philipshalle Düsseldorf, 6. November 2004
• 2009 - Wise Guys - Live im Capitol

External links

• Wise Guys, official Homepage
• Der Sound zum Kirchentag von den Wise Guys (German). Song-Download, Protestant Church Congress 2009 (kirchentag.de).