L-O-V-E

Bert Kaempfert composed the melody that became "L-O-V-E," and it first surfaced as an instrumental on his 1964 album Blue Midnight. Milt Gabler then added the lyrics that spelled out its title, and Nat King Cole recorded the finished song for his 1965 studio album of the same name, with Lee Gillette producing and Bobby Bryant playing the trumpet solo. The record arrived near the end of Cole's life; he died in February 1965, having spent nearly three decades in music, from forming the King Cole Trio in the late 1930s to becoming a solo singer billed as Nat King Cole from 1950 onward.

Cole recorded the song in several other languages for international editions of the album, singing it in Japanese mixed with English words, Italian, German, Spanish and French. In the French version the song was renamed "Je Ne Repartirai Pas," with a translation by Jean Delleme.

The song later found new audiences through covers. Joss Stone recorded it for a Chanel Coco Mademoiselle commercial starring Keira Knightley and directed by Joe Wright, released digitally in September 2007 and later added to the deluxe version of her album Introducing Joss Stone. On October 6 of that year she sang it as a duet with Natalie Cole at Frosted Pink, a women's cancer benefit held at the Barker Hangar in Santa Monica and aired on ABC. Yōko Oginome released a Japanese version in 2011 as the theme for the TBS drama Love & Fight.