Emerson, Lake & Palmer released their third album, "Pictures at an Exhibition", in the UK in November 1971. They recorded their performance of it at Newcastle City Hall on 26 March 1971 and decided to release it with the concert's encore, "Nut Rocker". The group wished to release it as their second album, but Atlantic Records declined to as it is a classical-oriented piece and claimed it would not sell or receive any radio airplay, and offered to release it through Nonesuch Records which handled more budget, classical, and avant-garde albums. The band refused, and delayed its release on purpose until after "Tarkus"; Emerson said the delay was to also show to the press and public that they could write their own songs and were not merely a "band that did classical music". Following Island Records' decision to import 250,000 copies into the US which sold within a short amount of time, helped by radio DJ Scott Muni playing the entire album uninterrupted on WNEW in New York City, Atlantic decided to release it through Cotillion as a budget album in January 1972. The album peaked at No. 3 in the UK and No. 10 in the US.