[Now with extra em's .]
David A. Jasen and Gene Jones in Spreadin’ Rhythm Around: Black Popular Songwriters, 1880-1930, explain the mystery surrounding Edna Alexander, variously credited as Edna Alexander Pinkard and Edna B. Pinkard. In 1919 a song crediting “Alex Belledna” was published, and in 1920 the name appeared on another composition, but in the small world of Tin Pan Alley no one knew this person. “In 1921 ‘Belledna’ shared credit with Maceo Pinkard and William Tracey on ‘’Tain’t Nothing Else But Jazz.’ To put speculation about the mysterious composer to rest, Variety reported on June 3, 1921, that ‘Alex Belledna’ was a pseudonym for Maceo Pinkard.” No one questioned why both Pinkard’s real name and pseudonym appeared on the same songs. “What the trade paper apparently did not know was that Pinkard had recently married an aspiring songwriter named Edna Belle Alexander.” She lists songs with this pseudonym in her ASCAP biography, including one with Andy Razaf, the “raunchy” “Kitchen Man” recorded by Bessie Smith. “Edna Alexander’s name appears on two Pinkard songs (‘Make Those Naughty Eyes Behave,’ in 1925, and ‘Sugar,’ in 1926), and the ‘Belledna’ alias appears on six unpublished songs with Pinkard.”
http://www.jazzstandards.com/compositions-2/sugar…