Editing Nat King Cole (section)

=== 1960s ===
In 1960, Cole's longtime collaborator Nelson Riddle left Capitol to join [[Reprise Records]], which was established by Frank Sinatra. Riddle and Cole recorded one final hit album, ''Wild Is Love'', with lyrics by [[Raymond Rasch|Ray Rasch]] and Dotty Wayne. Cole later retooled the concept album into an [[Off-Broadway]] show, ''I'm with You''.

Nevertheless, Cole recorded several hit singles during the 1960s, including "Let There Be Love" with [[George Shearing]] in 1961, the country-flavored hit "[[Ramblin' Rose]]" in August 1962 (reaching No.  2 on the Pop chart), "[[Dear Lonely Hearts]]" (No. 13), "[[That Sunday, That Summer]]" (No. 12) and "[[Those Lazy-Hazy-Crazy Days of Summer (song)|Those Lazy-Hazy-Crazy Days of Summer]]"<ref name=pc22/> (his final top-ten hit, reaching number 6 on the Pop chart). Cole performed in many short films, sitcoms, and television shows and played [[W. C. Handy]] in the film ''[[St. Louis Blues (1958 film)|St. Louis Blues]]'' (1958). Cole appeared in ''The Nat King Cole Story'', ''[[China Gate (1957 film)|China Gate]]'', and ''[[The Blue Gardenia]]'' (1953).

In January 1964, Cole made one of his final television appearances, on ''[[The Jack Benny Program]]''. He was introduced as "the best friend a song ever had" and sang "[[When I Fall in Love]]". ''[[Cat Ballou]]'' (1965), Cole's final film, was released several months after his death.

Earlier on, Cole's shift to traditional pop led some jazz critics and fans to accuse him of selling out, but he never abandoned his jazz roots; as late as 1956, Cole recorded an all-jazz album, ''[[After Midnight (Nat King Cole album)|After Midnight]]'', and many of his albums after this are fundamentally jazz-based, being scored for big band without strings, although the arrangements focus primarily on the vocal rather than instrumental leads.

Cole had one of his last major hits in 1963, two years before his death, with "[[Those Lazy-Hazy-Crazy Days of Summer (song)|Those Lazy-Hazy-Crazy Days of Summer]]", which reached number 6 on the Pop chart. "[[Unforgettable (Nat King Cole song)|Unforgettable]]" was made famous again in 1991 by Cole's daughter Natalie when modern recording technology was used to reunite father and daughter in a duet. The duet version rose to the top of the pop charts, almost forty years after its original popularity.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Teachout|first1=Terry|title=Nat King Cole|journal=The American Scholar|date=1992|volume=26|url=http://eds.b.ebscohost.com.ezproxy1.library.arizona.edu/ehost/detail/detail?sid=6f10b1ac-7023-4d70-927f-78a426b5840c%40sessionmgr111&vid=0&hid=120&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=rih&AN=1992-02661|access-date=October 1, 2014|archive-date=February 15, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220215154832/https://shibboleth.arizona.edu/idp/profile/SAML2/POST/SSO;jsessionid=node01m0jwzyai780m1t37bn8bgbup82094183.node0?execution=e1s1#db=rih&AN=1992-02661|url-status=live}}</ref>

Cole's final studio album was titled ''[[L-O-V-E]]''. The album peaked at No. 4 on the Billboard Albums chart in the spring of 1965.