20 minutes was all it took for the melody - Jürgens knew it would be a hit - but the words didn’t come so fast. What could match the rousing, swelling music? Jürgens decided homesickness could.
The song is about a longing for Greece, the home of many a migrant worker living and working in Germany’s industrial Ruhr. The singer steps into the warmth of a tavern on a cold night and meets men with brown eyes and black hair. Music from a far-off place is playing, it sounds southern but where exactly is hard to say. He is offered wine and drinking with the huddled patrons. Slowly he learns the migrants’ stories and their longing for Greece, the green hills, sea and wind of home, for the women and children they left behind. Here in Germany, they are strangers and they are alone.
Jürgens was right. It was an instant hit. In 1975, ‘Grieschescher wein’ (‘Greek Wine’ in English) reached number one in Germany and Switzerland. Later it was ranked in the top ten most influential Austrian pop songs.
It’s a rousing song and you could imagine the Greek men in the tavern that night arm in arm swinging their tankards high. Though I don’t understand a word, the sense it invokes of a home far away is stirring. Next time you go on holiday and find yourself missing home, stick this one on and get the blood pumping.
Griechischer Wein - Apple Music