The Climb (Leiber and Stoller song)

"The Climb"
Single by The Coasters
Released	1962
Writer(s)	Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller.

"The Climb" is a 1962 song written by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller. Leiber and Stoller's song was a take on teen dances like the shimmy, and they originally planned to call it "The Slime".^[1]

"The Climb" was released as an A-side single by The Coasters (Atco, 1962), then covered by The Federals (Parlophone, 1964), and The Forte Four (Decca 1966). However a song appearing at the same time, "The Climb" by The Kingsmen (Wand, 1965), is not by Leiber and Stoller, but by The Kingsmen's own sax player and vocalist Lynn Easton.

The song was performed by George McFadden for the Elvis Presley film Viva Las Vegas though on the soundtrack recording McFadden is accompanied by The Jordanaires rather than the other members of the Forte Four, who appear in the movie.^[2]

A French cover version, "Le Climb", with new French lyrics by Pierre Saka and Claude Dufresne was recorded by singer Big Jones in France in 1962.

References

1. Steven Otfinoski The golden age of novelty songs 2000 "Even the Coasters tried their hand at the form in 1962 with "Teach Me How to Shimmy" and "The Climb," which Leiber and Stoller originally called "The Slime," their editorial comment on teen dances. "
2. Elvis day by day Peter Guralnick, Ernst Jorgensen - 1999 - Page 188 0345420896 "The setting is a Vegas nightclub, where Elvis and Ann-Margret dance to a black quartet's version of Leiber and Stoller's "The Climb" (the soundtrack recording is actually by the Jordanaires) before Elvis gets up on stage himself and launches into "What'd I Say?"