One of the greatest jazz/swing/jive tunes of the bop era is ‘Reverse The Charges’. But who wrote it and when was it written? Much confusion surrounds its authorship beginning with my own miscalculations. So here we go: the first recording of it that I was aware of was performed by Etta Jones in the early 1990s. But while scouring some early Bud Powell recordings, I discovered that it was recorded as a post-war bop instrumental under the same title a good forty-five years earlier by a group that included young Bud on piano, led by sax player Frank Socolow and trumpeter Freddie Webster (remember that last name.) Though I’d never before wondered about the authorship of the song, this made me assume that it began life as a post-war bop instrumental and had its lyrics added later, a la Jon Hendricks, cleverly conforming the intent of the lyrics to the title of the instrumental. And then things get more confusing. After listening to the song a few times over the weekend, YouTube’s algorithm decided to teach me a thing or two and dumped out another earlier version of the tune. Turns out that the first recording of the song was prior to the Powell/Socolow/Webster record, and was made by legendary bluesman Sonnyboy Williams in 1941. The lyrics were already written and Williams performs them quite delightfully. The song was credited to Williams and Freddy Webster, who played trumpet on the Socolow/Powell/Webster recording (as we’ve pointed out). Does this suggest that Webster perhaps urged the song onto the Socolow date, given that he supplied either the music or lyrics? Answer: sure it does! And so what? It’s a terrific little ‘head’ (AKA one line jazz melody designed to be a soloed on after a one-chorus pass). But guess what? The real composers names are sort of like Williams and Webster but are not the same people at all. ‘Reverse the Charges’ was in fact composed by legendary black female pianist/composer Mary Lou Williams and Oscar-winning lyricist Paul Francis Webster. Does this suggest that the person in charge of taking down the songs info at the 1941 Williams/Webster session heard the name ‘Williams’ and just assume they meant Sonnyboy, and then upon hearing the name Webster assumed it was Freddy? I can’t think of a better explanation and would prefer not to think of Sonny Boy and Freddie slyly appropriating the credit given the similarity of their names to the actual composers. Even now, though, this doesn’t all quite make sense since the lyric is unlike anything else that Paul Francis Webster wrote (‘Secret Love’ and ‘Love Is a Many Splendoured Thing’ are two of his most notable credits). I don’t know. And now that I’ve gotten this out of my system I no longer care. Above are three important versions of the song beginning with the 1941 Sonnyboy Williams date, moving onto the Bud Powell/Frank Socolow/Freddie Webster cut and ending with the definitive Etta Jones version. If another recording with different composers credited turns up I won’t be mentioning it.