[1] Two years before the release of Once Upon a Time in 1969, the Kingston Trio disbanded in 1967 following a two-week farewell engagement at San Francisco's Hungry i, the nightclub at which they had started their rise to prominence a decade earlier.

John Stewart began a solo career, Nick Reynolds retired from the music business and, after a short-lived solo career, Bob Shane created a new group, The New Kingston Trio.

[1] The only full-length album released by either group was The World Needs a Melody (though 25 years later FolkEra Records issued The Lost Masters 1969-1972, a compilation of previously unreleased tracks from the Shane-Horine-Connor years), and its sales were negligible.

Though both troupes of the New Kingston Trio made a limited number of other recordings and several television appearances, neither generated very much interest from fans or the public at large.

The back cover consisted of a track listing and an essay and photographs titled "The Secret of Longines Symphonette" describing the process of recording LPs.