Dust in the Wind

The single of "Dust in the Wind" went Gold shortly after its hit run, and the RIAA later certified it 3× Platinum on November 26, 2019, making it the second Kansas song to reach platinum after "Carry On Wayward Son." The track, written by Kerry Livgren, had first appeared on the band's 1977 album Point of Know Return and peaked at No. 6 on the Billboard Hot 100 the week of April 22, 1978, the only Kansas single to reach the US top ten.

The song began as a fingerpicking exercise. Livgren devised the guitar line while practicing, and his wife Vicci heard it, said the melody was nice, and urged him to put words to it. Unsure whether his bandmates would accept such a departure from their usual style, he played them a rough recording after the group had rehearsed everything planned for the June and July 1976 sessions. After a stunned silence, they asked where it had been, and guitarist Rich Williams later recalled that even in that bare form the band declared it their next single.

Recorded at Woodland Sound Studios in Nashville, the track featured Livgren on a Martin D-28 acoustic guitar borrowed from Williams, with Robby Steinhardt on electric violin and Steve Walsh singing lead even though he had just handed in his resignation, a departure that lasted only a month. Despite being passed over for the album's title cut, radio airplay as an album track pushed a rush-released single onto the Hot 100 at No. 81 in January 1978.