Top 10 Kansas Songs

Photo: By DanielleCannova (Own work) [CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Our Top 10 Kansas Songs list looks at a band that found enormous commercial success without surrendering its progressive rock edge. “Carry On Wayward Son” was the song that broke through every format, proving that music this heavy and sophisticated could still become a massive radio hit. Other progressive and hard-rock bands had crossed that line before, including Yes with “Roundabout,” Foghat with “Slow Ride,” Edgar Winter with “Frankenstein,” and Led Zeppelin with “Stairway to Heaven.” Kansas followed Leftoverture with the Point of Know Return album, giving the band another major single with “Dust in the Wind.” That run established Kansas as one of the rare American bands that could satisfy progressive-rock fans and mainstream radio listeners at the same time.

The commercial peak of Leftoverture and Point of Know Return could not last forever, but the band kept making quality records through major personnel changes. One of the most important later additions was former Dixie Dregs guitarist Steve Morse, whose arrival helped reshape Kansas in the 1980s. From the 1974 debut through 2020’s The Absence of Presence, Kansas released sixteen studio albums and continued carrying the music to new generations. This list mixes the enormous hits with a few songs that deserve more attention. Like every Top 10, it is subjective, but the whole point is to turn people on to the depth of the Kansas catalog.

# 10 – Dust In The Wind

“Dust in the Wind” starts our list because its enormous commercial success helped bring Kansas to listeners who might never have discovered a progressive-rock band otherwise. Kerry Livgren wrote the song, which appeared on the Point of Know Return album in 1977. Released as a single in 1978, it reached number six on the Billboard Hot 100 and remains the band’s only U.S. Top 10 single. The acoustic guitars, Robby Steinhardt’s strings, and Steve Walsh’s vocal gave Kansas a completely different kind of hit from “Carry On Wayward Son.” When people start talking about Kansas, this is still one of the first songs that gets mentioned.

# 9 – Silhouettes In Disguise

“Silhouettes in Disguise” came from Kansas’s 1986 album Power, the record that introduced Steve Morse to a new generation of Kansas fans. The former Dixie Dregs guitarist brought a completely different attack to the band before later joining Deep Purple. Steve Walsh had also returned, and the combination of Walsh, Morse, Rich Williams, Billy Greer, and Phil Ehart made this version of Kansas sound much harder and more streamlined. Morse’s guitar work is all over this track, and it still sounds better to me now than it did when the record first came out. If you only know seventies Kansas, this is a great place to hear how different the band could become.

# 8 – I Can Fly

You might not have heard “I Can Fly” in 1995 because bands like Nirvana, Pearl Jam, and Soundgarden were getting most of the rock press and airplay. Kansas was still making adventurous music, and Freaks of Nature deserved far more attention than it received. “I Can Fly” opens the album with David Ragsdale’s violin cutting straight through a muscular modern Kansas arrangement. It is one of the strongest progressive rock tracks the band recorded in the 1990s. If this album passed you by the first time around, go back and give it a real listen.

# 7 – Song For America

“Song for America” is quintessential Kansas and one of the earliest tracks that showed just how ambitious this band could be. Kerry Livgren wrote the epic title track for the band’s second album, released in 1975. The long instrumental passages, violin, keyboards, guitars, and shifting sections already contain so much of the Kansas sound that would explode commercially a couple of years later. You can hear the band stretching itself without worrying about squeezing the song into a radio-friendly shape. It is simply stunning music, and it still sounds timeless.

# 6 – Reason To Be

“Reason to Be” is one of those beautiful Kansas songs that never received the attention it deserved. The track appeared on 1979’s Monolith, the album that followed the enormous success of Leftoverture and Point of Know Return. The introduction has always reminded me a little of Yes, especially in the way the melody floats over the arrangement. Kansas was moving toward a sweeter progressive-rock sound here, a style that bands like Asia would soon take deep into the mainstream. “Reason to Be” may not be one of the band’s biggest hits, but it remains one of the prettiest songs in the catalog.

# 5 – Miracles Out Of Nowhere

We could have built almost the entire list from Leftoverture, and “Miracles Out of Nowhere” is one of the reasons why. Kerry Livgren wrote the song, and the classic lineup of Steve Walsh, Robby Steinhardt, Rich Williams, Dave Hope, Phil Ehart, and Livgren sounds completely locked together. The album reached number five on the Billboard album chart and became the record that finally pushed Kansas into the big time. “Miracles Out of Nowhere” has everything I love about the band: dramatic vocals, shifting sections, huge melodies, and musicianship that never sounds like showing off for its own sake. This is Kansas at the moment when all of its ideas started coming together.

# 4 – Point Of Know Return

“Point of Know Return” opens the 1977 album of the same name and immediately sounds like a band determined to keep its momentum going. Steve Walsh, Robby Steinhardt, and Phil Ehart wrote the song, while Jeff Glixman produced the album. It crossed the line between commercial accessibility and serious progressive-rock musicianship without sacrificing either side. The Point of Know Return album went on to reach number four on the Billboard album chart and became Kansas’s biggest-selling studio album. As a follow-up to “Carry On Wayward Son,” the title track showed that Kansas had no intention of backing away from what made the band different.

# 3 – Icarus (Born on Wings of Steel)

Masque (180 Gram Audiophile Vinyl/Limited Anniversary Edition)

“Icarus (Born on Wings of Steel)” came from Kansas’s 1975 album Masque, the band’s third studio album in less than two years. Kerry Livgren wrote the song, and the classic Kansas lineup was already operating at an incredibly high level before the commercial breakthrough arrived. Steve Walsh’s keyboards and vocals, Robby Steinhardt’s violin, Livgren and Rich Williams on guitars, Dave Hope on bass, and Phil Ehart on drums give the track that unmistakable early Kansas sound. The song feels like the band pushing straight toward the bigger ideas that would fully emerge on Leftoverture. This is progressive rock with muscle, melody, and a sense of motion that never lets up.

# 2 – Carry On Wayward Son

“Carry On Wayward Son” opens the mighty Leftoverture album and remains the song that turned millions of rock fans on to Kansas. Kerry Livgren wrote it, and the single climbed all the way to number eleven on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1977. That opening a cappella vocal, the guitar riff, the sudden changes in tempo, and Steve Walsh’s vocal somehow made progressive rock sound like something everybody could sing along with. The classic lineup of Walsh, Steinhardt, Livgren, Williams, Hope, and Ehart sounds absolutely fearless on the recording. Everything about this song screams classic, and nearly fifty years later it still does.

# 1 – The Wall

It was tough to put any Kansas song above “Carry On Wayward Son,” because that record became bigger than the band itself. Still, I have always preferred “The Wall,” and that is exactly why these lists are subjective and fun. Kerry Livgren and Steve Walsh wrote the song for 1976’s Leftoverture, and the musical opening still sounds like the end of some epic adventure movie. The mysterious exchange between Livgren’s keyboards and Walsh’s vocal keeps building until the rest of the band turns it into one of the most moving pieces Kansas ever recorded. “Carry On Wayward Son” may be the signature hit, but “The Wall” is the Kansas song I would put at number one.