Kansas

Kansas came out of Topeka with the heartland in their boots and art rock on the brain, and they made it work. Steve Walsh sang lead and played keyboards, Kerry Livgren played guitar and keyboards, Robby Steinhardt bowed the violin, Rich Williams played guitar, Dave Hope held down the bass and Phil Ehart drove the drums. The violin is the giveaway: swooping over power chords, it made them sound like nobody else on the arena circuit.

Signed to Kirshner, they built a following on album-oriented rock radio first, and the hits came later. "Carry On Wayward Son" is progressive rock with a hard-rock punch, stacked harmonies and a riff that won't quit, and it became a pillar of classic rock radio. "Dust in the Wind" went the other way entirely, a hushed, spare meditation that sold a million copies as a single. Point of Know Return in 1977, with its sweeping title track, went multi-platinum, and so did Leftoverture.

Walsh left in 1981 and Livgren, Hope and Steinhardt were all gone by 1983, with John Elefante and later Steve Morse and Billy Greer stepping in. The name has never gone away, and in 2005 the band went into the Kansas Music Hall of Fame, which seems only fair.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.