Shirley Bassey - Climb Ev'ry Mountain (1961 Recording)

1961 Here is a Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein classic, 'Climb Ev'ry Mountain' recorded by Shirley Bassey, and released on her 1961 LP titled simply, Shirley Bassey. Climb Every Mountain, climbed to the top of the charts for Shirley, peaking at #1 in the UK, and I believe she has the only hit with this song.

ABOUT this LP:
Shirley Bassey is a 1961 album by Shirley Bassey, her fifth studio album and her third with EMI/Columbia. Bassey was accompanied by Geoff Love and his orchestra and The Williams Singers (The Rita Williams Singers). The album spent eleven weeks on the charts, beginning in February 1962, and peaking at #14.

ABOUT this song:
This song shares inspirational overtones with the song "You'll Never Walk Alone" from Carousel. They are both sung by the female mentor characters in the shows, and are used to give strength to the protagonists in the story, and both are given powerful reprises at the end of their respective shows. However, as Oscar Hammerstein II was writing the lyrics, it developed its own inspirational overtones along the lines of an earlier Hammerstein song, "There's a Hill Beyond a Hill". He felt that the metaphors of climbing mountains and fording streams better fitted Maria's quest for her spiritual compass. However, the muse behind the song was Sister Gregory, the head of Drama at Rosary College in Illinois. The letters that she sent to Hammerstein and to Mary Martin, the first Maria von Trapp on Broadway, described the parallels between a nun's choice for a religious life and the choices that humans must make to find their purpose and direction in life. When she read the manuscript of the lyrics, she confessed that it "drove [her] to the Chapel" because the lyrics conveyed a "yearning that ... ordinary souls feel but cannot communicate."

Although this song has parallels with "You'll Never Walk Alone," the song shares musical similarities with the song "Something Wonderful" from The King and I. Both songs are played at a similar broad tempo, and both songs have accompaniments punctuated by heavy chords in the orchestral score.

The song has often been sung by operatically trained voices in professional stage productions. In the original Broadway production it was sung by Patricia Neway, in the original London production it was sung by Constance Shacklock, and in the original Australian production it was sung by Rosina Raisbeck.

LYRICS - Climb Every Mountain:
Climb every mountain, search high and low
Follow every byway, every path you know
Climb every mountain, ford every stream
Follow every rainbow, till you find your dream
A dream that will need all the love you can give
Every day of your life for as long as you live

Climb every mountain, ford every stream
Follow every rainbow, till you find your dream
(A dream that will need all the love you can give)
(Every day of your life for as long as you live)

Climb every mountain, ford every stream
Follow every rainbow, till... you... find... your...dream

Special Thanks to Pieter and Astrid from the Shirley Bassey blog and all those who have contributed wonderful pictures of Shirley!



Видео Shirley Bassey - Climb Ev'ry Mountain (1961 Recording) канала Shirley Bassey Music and Vids