I've recently bought a book by a guy called John Eliot called "Insights in Jazz" ([url="http://dropback.co.uk/"]website[/url]) which covers this exact topic. It's extremely thorough (I'm still new to it) but it discusses breaking songs down into "bricks" and learning them that way, with "joins" - meaning you learn the tune simply, inside out and can play it in any key! (Darned vocalists, am I right?)
I highly recommend it - I'm only just starting out but he's mapped out something like 200 jazz standards showing how simple it is to learn!