"Sour Milk Sea" was a hit in Canada, however, peaking at number 29 on the "RPM" 100 in November 1968.In a 1974 feature on his career in "ZigZag" magazine, Lomax said that the song's release in tandem with "obvious" hits like "Hey Jude" and "Those Were the Days" jinxed its commercial performance, since radio stations were reluctant to risk alienating other record labels by featuring all four Apple singles too heavily on their playlists.