This 1989 NY Times article (click) says that Andy Razaf wrote the lyrics for "If I Can't Sell It, I'll Keep Sittin on It," - "with which Ruth Brown brings down the house in ''Black and Blue'' at the Minskoff." Here's the article:

A Lot of Hit Songs From an Unsung Lyricist
By STEPHEN HOLDEN
Published: February 8, 1989

The most prolific and versatile lyricist to be represented on Broadway this season remains virturally unknown, his name buried in the fine print of the Playbill song credits for Ain't Misbehavin' and Black and Blue.

Andy Razaf, who wrote the words for seven tunes in Ain't Misbehavin' and five in Black and Blue, including both title songs, is not a name that rings a bell in the minds of most people. Yet in the 1920's and 30's, Razaf, the American-born son of a Malagasy nobleman, wrote the lyrics for "Ain't Misbehavin'" "Honeysuckle Rose" "S'posin," "The Joint Is Jumpin'" "Keepin' Out of Mischief Now," "Memories of You," "Stompin at the Savoy," "You're Lucky to Me," "I'm Gonna Move to the Outskirts of Town" and many other American standards.

When he died in 1973, he had written more than 500 songs, yet he continues to be overshadowed by his collaborators: Fats Waller, Eubie Blake, James P. Johnson and W. C. Handy.

Bawdy Songs Were First
More than a superb craftsman in a sassy pop-jazz vernacular that seems perennially fresh, Razaf was an influential innovator. He first made his reputation writing bawdy blues songs like the hilariously salacious "If I Can't Sell It, I'll Keep Sittin on It," with which Ruth Brown brings down the house in Black and Blue at the Minskoff. But he soon graduated to subtler fare. "Black and Blue," which was written for the 1929 Broadway show Hot Chocolates, was considered by John Hammond to be America's first racial protest song.

During the same period in which he wrote with Fats Waller, Razaf also collaborated with Paul Denniker, an Englishman, on hits for Rudy Vallee. The duo was one of Tin Pan Alley's first integrated songwriting teams.

Probably no one knows more about Razaf's life than Barry Singer, a 31-year-old music historian who runs Chartwell Booksellers in Manhattan and who has spent much of the last decade researching and writing an unpublished biography, Rasaf: A Life (With Lyrics). His account is a story of artistic triumph impeded and scarred by racial discrimination.

Grandson of a Diplomat
Razaf was born Andreamenentania Rasafkeriefo in 1895 in Washington. His grandfather, John Waller (no relation to Fats), was a freed slave who educated himself and became a powerful figure in Kansas politics. For helping to deliver the black vote in Kansas to President Benjamin Harrison, he was made United States consul in Madagascar. There he became friendly with the royal family; his daughter married one of the queen's nephews. When the French took over the island, Waller was briefly imprisoned because of his closeness to the royal family; his wife and children fled to the United States. Andy Razaf was born a couple of weeks after their arrival.

In a family that valued poetry, Razaf was writing verses at the age of 10. He was only 17 when he sold his first song, "Baltimo,'" shortly after getting a job as an elevator operator in a Tin Pan Alley office building. With the outbreak of World War I, Razaf turned from songwriting to poetry, writing militant verses protesting racial oppression for such journals as The Messenger, The Emancipator, The New Negro and The Crusader. In 1920, he left New York for a year to pitch for a semi-pro baseball club in Cleveland. But when Mamie Smith, the first blues singer to be commercially recorded, scored an enormous hit with "Crazy Blues," he returned to Harlem to write blues lyrics.

"Although he quickly showed himself to be the most talented writer of bawdy blues lyrics, he hated writing lyrics he considered demeaning to blacks," Mr. Singer said. "Nevertheless, he wrote hundreds of them, including 'Kitchen Man' and 'My Handy Man,' which Alberta Hunter revived at The Cookery."

Self-Presentation
Razaf introduced himself to Fats Waller on a Harlem street in 1921 after seeing him win a local piano competition. Their first published collaboration, "When You're Tired of Me, Just Let Me Know," appeared in 1924. Four years later, the team made it to Broadway with the revue "Keep Shufflin.'" At the same time, they were hired to write revues for Connie's Inn, the Cotton Club's chief competitor. In 1928 their revue Hot Feet proved so popular that it was moved to Broadway under the title Hot Chocolates. Its score included both "Ain't Misbehavin'" and "Black and Blue." Louis Armstrong conducted and during intermissions would sing and play "Ain't Misbehavin.'"

According to Mr. Singer, Razaf wrote "Black and Blue" after Dutch Schultz, the bootlegger who supplied beer to Connie's Inn and who was the main investor in "Hot Chocolates," insisted the show have another number before moving to Broadway.

"He demanded a comedy song for a lady who says how tough it is to be black," Mr. Singer said. "He literally put a gun to Andy's head and told him that if he didn't write it he would never write again. The opening-night response to the song was silence -people were stunned. Then they went crazy. Andy hadn't written the comedy song Schultz wanted, but because it was a hit, Schultz left him alone."

Two Different Temperaments
In the 30's, as Fats Waller became a huge international star, his white managers discouraged his collaboration with Razaf, Mr. Singer said. Their relationship was not helped either by the fact that in temperament the two were polar opposites. "Andy was a dapper gentleman, even a little stuffy, and Waller a free spirit who was hard to control," Mr. Singer said.

One of Razaf's most loyal friends proved to be Eubie Blake, with whom he had collaborated on the revue Blackbirds of 1930, which yielded the standard "Memories of You." When the swing era arrived, Razaf was hired by big-band leaders to provide lyrics for rhythm songs, the most famous being "Stompin' at the Savoy" and "In the Mood."

Razaf never ceased campaigning for racial justice. After the 1940 movie Tin Pan Alley depicted a white man composing "Honeysuckle Rose," he wrote an open letter to 20th Century-Fox that was published in Variety, decrying the scene as "a gross misrepresention and insult." The studio responded with its own letter chiding him for "poor sportsmanship."

Ignored by the Movies
In 1946, five years after moving to Englewood, N.J., with the third of his four wives, Razaf entered politics, running for the City Council. But he lost narrowly amid charges of ballot tampering. Razaf settled in Los Angeles in 1949, and although he was treated as a black statesman by California politicians, the movie business barely acknowledged him. Less than two years later, he had a stroke that left him paralyzed from the waist down. Bound to a wheelchair for the remaining two decades of his life, he wrote sporadically and carried on a voluminous correspondence with music publishers, trying to keep his name and songs alive.

"Andy had a tremendous sense of honor that hamstrung him in many ways," Mr. Singer said. "He criticized black musicians for not performing black composers' works frequently enough. When rock-and-roll came in, he wrote furious letters about it. But he was also fair in his anger. In the 50's, responding to all the rumors that he had written some of Irving Berlin's songs, he made a public statement saying Berlin was the finest songwriter in history and that he had never written a note or a line of his music."

One of Razaf's most ardent champions is Bobby Short, who first met Razaf 40 years ago in Los Angeles and who recorded an album of his songs two years ago for Atlantic Records called Guess Who's in Town.

"Andy was very down-to-earth and didn't seem to enjoy what fame he had had," Mr. Short recalled the other day. "If he had a major weakness, it was for pretty women. For all the wonderful songs of his that we know, there are just as many that are still unsung. 'Black and Blue' is very beautiful, but I'm just as mad about 'Lonesome Swallow.' I would say he is probably the outstanding black lyricist we've ever had."

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This page (click) says lyrics for "If I Can't Sell It, I'll Keep Sittin' on It" were written by Andy Razaf, with music by Alex Hill - first recorded by Georgia White in 1936.

Andy Razaf (1895-1973) was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1972. Here are some of his songs: “Ain’t Misbehavin’”, “Honeysuckle Rose”, “In the Mood”, “Stompin’ at the Savoy”, “Memories of You”, “12th Street Rag”, “Black and Blue”, “S’posin’”, “Make Believe Ballroom”, “Christopher Columbus”, “Milkman’s Matinee”, Concentratin’ On You”, “You’re Lucky to Me”, “Porter’s Love Song”, “Knock Me a Kiss”, “Dusky Stevedore”, “My Special Friend”, “That’s What I Like “Bout the South”, “Keepin’ Out of Mischief Now”, “Blue Turning Gray Over You”, “Shoutin’ in the Amen Corner”, “Gee, Baby, Ain’t I Good to You?”, “On Revival Day”, “Stealing Apples”, “How Can You Face Me?”, “Massachusetts”, “My Handy Man”, “My Fate is in Your Hands”, “The Joint is Jumpin’”, “I’m Gonna Move to the Outskirts of Town”, “If It Ain’t Love”, “The Burning Bush of Israel”, “Am I My Brother’s Keeper?”, “Seeds of Brotherhood” and “Precious Rosary.”
Detailed list of Andy Razaf Songs (click)