Further commercial success followed to a limited degree with their debut album, (Turn On) The Music Machine, and the follow-up single, "The People In Me", reaching number 66.

[1] However, with the combination of poorly scheduled tour dates and insufficient royalties, The Music Machine's lineup disassembled, leaving chief songwriter Sean Bonniwell as the only original member remaining to record the group's second album.

Executive Art Laboe agreed to the move out of disinterest for Bonniwell's desire to create a coherent concept album, rather than hit-ready singles.

Nonetheless, Original Sound did distribute the group's single, "The Eagle Never Hunts the Fly", for a perceived, but ill-founded, resemblance to Count Five's Top Ten hit, "Psychotic Reaction", before cutting all ties with the band.

[5] The original lineup partially recorded and rehearsed material for the upcoming album, along with some demos, at Cosimo Matassa's Jazz City Studio in New Orleans, in the first half of 1967.

Bonniwell disbanded the group, and released one solo album called Close, in 1969, before taking a lengthy hiatus from the music industry.

[11] Although The Bonniwell Music Machine was largely overlooked at the time of its release, and had gone out of print by the early 1970s, its reputation has continued to grow over the years.

[8] Unterberger also commented on the Allmusic website that the album saw "Bonniwell branching out from psych-punk into a poppier and more eclectic direction", while also noting that the results were not of the same standards as other tracks.

[15] A review in the Chicago Tribune writes that, despite the album's lack of success during its initial release, "the bulk of the material remains fresh and brashly distinctive".