The instrumental and the song have been recorded by a number of musicians including Tony Bennett, Stanley Turrentine and Bill Evans[1] (also released on Christmas with Sinatra & Friends), Richard Davis, Kenny Burrell, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Hank Jones and Helen Merrill.
[2] Jazz historian Mark Stryker, in his book Jazz from Detroit, provides the following account of the writing of "A Child Is Born": An intriguing twist to [Roland Hanna and Thad Jones'] relationship is that Hanna almost certainly composed “A Child Is Born,” the gentle waltz credited to Jones and his most- covered song.
David Berger, who was at the Village Vanguard for most of the band’s gigs in the early years, remembers Hanna developing the song over many weeks during his improvised solo features; Jones showed up one night with a full- band arrangement of what Hanna had been playing.
He doesn’t mention the song by name, but it could only be “A Child Is Born.” “I said, ‘Thad, isn’t that my tune?’ He said, ‘No, it’s mine.’” Hanna chuckled as he recounted the story.
Hanna never contested Jones’ authorship publicly, but he told friends privately that he wrote the song.