The Sopwith Camel was a British fighter used in World War I. It was somewhat difficult to fly, but it was perhaps the fighter that achieved the most victories during that terrible conflict.
The band named after the plane was the first to emerge from the San Francisco rock scene to score a hit on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart with the vaudeville-style Hello, Hello , which peaked at number 26. Shortly after, Postcard from Jamaica reached number 88 in April 1967.
The first album was released that year on the Kama Sutra Records label and by the end of the year the band had already disappeared.
It could have ended there, but in 1971 the group reformed and recorded their second album, The Miraculous Hump Returns from the Moon , released on Warner Bros. Records' Reprise label in 1973.
Allmusic : "Imagine a jazzy John Sebastian who likes Eastern culture and vaudeville. This is a nice, unambitious hippie groove for a quiet, sunny afternoon. If you're in that mood, it'll take you to a warm, fuzzy place."
The Guardian : "What never ceases to amaze me about this record is how it sounds like it was recorded a week ago... Taking elements of FM schmaltz, prog-rock, jazz, showtunes, krautrock and Indian classical music, this is an album that brims with ideas, but never overwhelms."