I've heard a Jazzy new rendition of this song (a female vocalist) and I liked it but I don't know who's the artist... The number of cover versions of this song, even if you narrow it to just females, is staggering.
The original was by Frances Comstock & Alfred Drake (in 1940, as you correctly said.)
It was followed by these versions, to name just a few:
Ella Fitzgerald (1948)
Les Paul & Mary Ford (1951)
Paul Weston and his Orchestra (1953)
Johnny Mathis (1960)
Marvin Gaye (June 1961)
Chris Montez (1966)
Gloria Gaynor (1975)
Emmylou Harris (1981)
Janis Siegel (1982)
Dianne Reeves (1991)
Diane Schuur (1992)
Amaryllis Temmerman (2007)
My guess is you heard Diane Schuur, Amaryllis Temmerman or Dianne Reeves.
But seriously, there are too many to list. Some fairly scary ones, too (OK, the MT one isn't too bad):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4mDMVyKjM...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=igMj2k2_H...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4sgPtwvmS... Ella Fitzgerald has a good version of it. A more jazzier version would probably be from Dianne Schuur... I like these recent renditions:
- Dianne Reeves on "I Remember"
- Patti Austin on "For Ella" | 