Climbing!

Climbing! (also known as Mountain Climbing!) is the debut studio album by American hard rock band Mountain. It was released on March 7, 1970, by Windfall Records.

Background
In 1969, Leslie West recorded his debut solo album, titled Mountain, with Felix Pappalardi on bass and drummer Norman Smart. Smart was replaced by Corky Laing on drums and percussion, and keyboardist Steve Knight was added to form the classic Mountain lineup, with Pappalardi as producer.

Windfall Records released Climbing! on March 7, 1970, and it reached number 17 on the American Billboard Top Albums chart. It included the group's best-known song, "Mississippi Queen", which became a hit, and "Never in My Life", which was regularly aired on contemporary FM radio. Both were sung by West, while Pappalardi supplied the vocal on another radio favorite, "Theme for an Imaginary Western".

Critical reception
Matthew Greenwald, in a review for AllMusic, gave the album four and a half out of five stars. In Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies (1981), Robert Christgau wrote: "We all know they're the original Cremora—what this makes clearer is that they're Jack Bruce's third of the jar. On "For Yasgur's Farm" Felix Pappalardi emulates JB's self-dramatizing vocal propriety as well as his bass lines, but when Leslie West runs an acoustic guitar solo from raga to flamenco without ever touching the blues you know he's not doing an Eric Clapton tribute. Can't fit the humongous "Mississippi Queen" into this theory, but I can tell you who wrote "Theme for an Imaginary Western": Jack Bruce and Pete Brown."

Track listing
On the 2003 Legacy Recordings CD, a live version of "For Yasgur's Farm" was added as a bonus track.

Personnel
Band
 * Leslie West – guitars on all tracks, vocals
 * Felix Pappalardi – bass guitar on all tracks except 6 and 7; piano on tracks 1, 2 and 9; rhythm guitar on track 7, vocals; production
 * Steve Knight – organ on tracks 2, 3, 4 and 5; Mellotron on tracks 2 and 9; handbells on track 4
 * Corky Laing – drums on all tracks except 6 and 7; percussion on tracks 7 and 9

Additional personnel
 * Bud Prager – executive production
 * Bob d'Orleans – engineering
 * Lillian Douma – engineering assistance
 * Beverly Weinstein – art direction
 * Gail Collins – cover artwork, photography