DESCRIPTION:
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 #40 on the Billboard Hot 100 charts in mid 1968)[1], and "Fly With Me". Despite the success of "Naturally Stoned", the group disbanded after "Fly With Me" and never released a full album.

After The Avant-Garde, Fowler went on to a career as a folk singer. Columbia released his LP And Then Came Bubba in 1970, and he played guitar on albums by Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen. Woolery became a country music artist on Warner Bros. Records and later Epic Records, charting twice but never releasing an album.[2] He has since become a game show host, appearing on Wheel of Fortune, Scrabble, Love Connection, Greed, and Lingo. "Naturally Stoned" was also used as the theme to a short-lived reality television series on GSN that starred Woolery, entitled Chuck Woolery: Naturally Stoned.[1]

2. This band is best known for Naturally Stoned which hit the Billboard chart at No. 40. and is best described as orchestrated 'psychedelic pop' (the lyrics may be psychedelic but the music is pop) with the backing sounding like a James Bond-type movie theme. It is the flip side which has been compiled however: Honey and Gall resurfacing on Psychedelic Unknowns Vol. 8 (LP & CD) and being an unusual and captivating hippie-psychedelic effort.

Yellow Beads is also dreamy acoustic hippie-pop in their unique style. The final 45 reverts to more standard orchestrated pop format effort on Fly With Me but is rescued by the electrified folk-pop flip.

All their material was composed by B. Fowler or C. Woolery, who it turns out is none other than Chuck Woolery, who would later become one of America's top game show hosts-- he was the original emcee of "Wheel of Fortune" before adding his brand of smarminess to the matchmaking "Love Connection".