Did You Know...

The nucleus of Kansas'”Kerry Livgren (guitar), Dave Hope (bass) and Phil Ehart (drums)'”were high-school band mates. Robby Steinhardt (violin) joined them in 1971, and the band changed its name from Kansas to White Clover. A year later, Steve Walsh (keyboards and vocals) and Richard Williams (guitar) arrived. Apparently 'White Clover' didn't suit the newcomers, as the band renamed itself Kansas. Prepared to conquer the music world, the sextet started playing Kansas bars with original progressive material.

After a couple of years of grinding out their tunes to dazed and confused crowds, they developed enough of a fan base to interest Kirshner Records, home of the Archies. While the first album, Kansas (1974), was not a big hit, the band promoted it thoroughly and sold a lot of tickets to budding fans. Album sales grew to match the tickets, and, finally, 1976 brought the success for which Kansas had been striving.

In fact, Kansas became very big very fast when they released 'Carry On Wayward Son' in early 1977. Though the single just missed the Top Ten, it went gold and owned the airwaves all spring. The British-style progressive keyboards, violin, and powerful guitars underpinned sharp vocal harmonies, and the record-buying audience was ready enough to send the album, Leftoverture, to triple-platinum (eventually sextuple-platinum) status. By now, Kansas tickets were as scarce as skyscrapers in Manhattan (Manhattan, Kansas, that is).