Phil Ehart Says Kansas ‘Didn’t Plan’ to Release 3 Hit Songs Back to Back
In the mid-’70s, Kansas rose to fame with the hit “Carry On Wayward Son,” featured on the classic rock band’s fourth studio album, Leftoverture. The group followed that with two big songs off its fifth album, Point of Know Return, making Kansas a household name. However, drummer Phil Ehart says releasing three back-to-back hits was unintentional.
‘Point of Know Return’ featured 2 hit songs
Kansas released Point of Know Return in 1977. The studio album featured the band’s biggest hit, “Dust in the Wind,” and other fan favorites, including “Sparks of the Tempest” and “Closet Chronicles.” In a January 2023 conversation with Ultimate Classic Rock, Ehart explained how the title track became an unexpected hit.
“[Point of Know Return] was a title I came up with. I had no idea that Steve [Walsh] was going to base the song around the title. He said, ‘You mind if I use that title?’ I said, ‘We’re going to use it as an album title.’ So he wrote that song, and that became a hit. Of course, that was a very big song — and then along came ‘Dust in the Wind,’ which is probably the biggest song that we have. Between that and ‘Wayward Son,’ it’s a toss-up.”
The album sold over 4 million copies in the United States and became RIAA-certified quadruple platinum in 1995.
The album placed Kansas in the ‘big time,’ according to Phil Ehart
The release of Point of Know Return shot Kansas to stardom and became a high point in the band’s career. With three back-to-back hits, Kansas earned its place in music history.
Despite the consecutive hits working out in the band’s favor, Ehart insisted it wasn’t intentional.
“To have two songs like that get major airplay really blew us into the big time,” Ehart told Ultimate Classic Rock. “Now we had three very popular songs and all back to back. So it worked out really well. It’s almost like we planned it — except we didn’t.”
Point of Know Return was Kansas’ highest-charting album, peaking at number four on the Billboard Top 200 in 1978.
Rich Williams recalled scrambling to write ‘Point of Know Return’
After Leftoverture, the bandmates worked hard to ride that success by releasing another album. However, getting it done wasn’t easy. Kansas guitarist Rich Williams shared what it like was like for him.
“We had been slowly building a fan base, and each album was selling a bit more, but we really hadn’t broken through. Then with Leftoverture and ‘Wayward Son’ — boom! — we just kicked the door down,” Williams told Mercury News in 2019. “So we were definitely riding high. But we had been working a lot. Then we had to go back in the studio and record. So it was a bit of a scramble as far as ‘where’s all this going to come from?'”
Fortunately, bandmate Kerry Livgren worked well under pressure and “got on a writing streak.” While penning Point of Know Return, Livgren showed up at the studio with new songs almost daily, Wiliams recalled.
But not everyone could handle the stress.
Steve Walsh left Kansas while recording ‘Point of Know Return’
The pressure was on to write a hit song for the band’s fifth studio album, and Kansas’ Steve Walsh cracked under the weight. The keyboardist abruptly left during a recording session.
“It was me trying to take control of things and make it all work, and other people questioning my decisions,” Walsh said (via Nights With Alice Cooper). “I made a lot of enemies, and they were all my friends before the album started. I was a little bit of a prima donna. I quit the band for three days, and then I just said, ‘What the hell is going on? I don’t know if I even wanna go out by myself.'”
Walsh quit the band again a few years later to work on his solo music. He re-joined Kansas in 1986 and stuck with the band until he retired in 2014.
