For fans of Supernatural, Kansas is the band that wrote the intro music for the penultimate episode of each season. "Carry On My Wayward Son" is a classic for fans of the show and has a cult following that stretches worldwide.
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However, that song, while popular now, was never a top-10 single for the band. In fact, the rock group from the 70s and 80s only ever charted with one track: "Dust In The Wind." The song debuted in the 1977 album "Point Of Know Return."
Interestingly, Kerry Livgren had penned that song while working on his guitar skills during the mid-70s.
"Actually, I was trying to improve my skills as an acoustic guitarist, I've always been an electric player," he revealed during an interview with Hawaii radio host Dave Lawrence. "And I came up with this finger exercise, which was basically 'Dust in the Wind.'"
Kerry Livgren Ran Track by His Bandmates When Working on an Album
A few years later, with some encouragement from his wife, Kerry showed the songs to his bandmates while working on "Point Of Know Return."
"We were working on the songs for Point Of Know Return and [Kerry] said, 'Guys, I've brought a song and it's kind of different. It doesn't have any drums or bass,'" Erhart told Classic Rock magazine in 2018. "He had this little reel-to-reel that he'd recorded it on. We listened to it and all of us were just blown away. Kerry goes, 'You mean you guys like it?' I remember either Rich [Williams, guitarist] or Steve [Walsh, lead singer/organist] going, 'Man, that's a hit! That's the kind of song you'd hear on the radio.' I'll never forget how surprised Kerry was by the reaction."
Turns out that Erhart was right. The track peaked at sixth on the Billboard Hot 100 in April 1978. "Dust In The Wind" has been streamed 968 million times on Spotify. It's still the group's most popular song, almost 50 years later.
Kansas is still releasing music in the form of their classic live shows. Their last studio album, "The Absence Of Presence," was released in 2020.
