the avant-garde was an american psychedelic pop group formed by chuck woolery and elkin "bubba" fowler in 1967. they released three singles on columbia records in 1967 and 1968, backed by different session musicians on each release: "yellow beads", "naturally stoned" (which hit no. 40 on the billboard hot 100 chart in mid-1968), and "fly with me!" despite the success of "naturally stoned", the group disbanded after "fly with me!" and never released a full album.