Biographer Barry Singer conjectured that this song was written by Waller and lyricist Andy Razaf and provided a description of the sale given by Waller to the "New York Post" in 1929—he sold the song for $500 to a white songwriter for use in a financially successful show (consistent with Jimmy McHugh's contributions to "Harry Delmar's Revels", 1927, and then to "Blackbirds of 1928"). He noted that early handwritten manuscripts in the Dana Library Institute of Jazz Studies of "Spreadin' Rhythm Around" (Jimmy McHugh 1935) are in Waller's hand. Jazz historian Paul S. Machlin commented that the Singer conjecture has "considerable justification". According to a biography by Waller's son Maurice, Waller told his son never to play the song within earshot because he had to sell it when he needed money. Maurice Waller wrote that his father objected to hearing "On the Sunny Side of the Street" on the radio.