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The Muckrakers
Successful English rock and roll band with a suggestive name only mentioned in the "So Little Time" skit from Peter Sellers' 1959 comedy album Songs for Swinging Sellers. A "muckraker" is an epithet for one who searches and spreads scandal, titillating rumors, and nasty gossip.
The skit is an interview with manipulative, overbearing rock manager Major Rafe Ralph, a parody of real English rock manager and terrible person Larry Parnes (with a dash of Elvis' manager Colonel Parker for the military rank). Parnes groomed, controlled, and gave his acts stage names like Billy Fury and Lance Fortune.
While the interview focuses on the Major's new up-and-comer, Twit Conway, several of Ralph's other successful acts are mentioned in the intro:
I wasn't keen on the assignment when my editor first handed it to me. "Do a feature on Major Rafe Ralph." There've been so many stories about Major Ralph, the colourful horse-dealer who's gone into the business of managing rock and roll stars. I mean, he personally discovered such disk names as Lenny Bronze, Clint Thigh, Matt Lust and such vocal groups as The Fleshpots, The Muckrakers. There were always five or six such up-and-coming rock stars living with him in his luxury flat in Mount Street, so it was, naturally, there I went to get my interview.
