Beginning his career primarily as a songwriter/session musician, Climie found himself scoring early hits by the mid-1980s with compositions recorded by George Michael and Aretha Franklin ("I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me)") and Pat Benatar ("Invincible").

[7] In the mid-1990s Climie expanded to production, while continuing his songwriting career, producing and writing songs for a number of artists, including MN8, Eternal, Louise Redknapp, B.B.

As the 90s progressed, Climie began a long-time collaboration with Eric Clapton beginning with his albums Pilgrim, Reptile, Riding with the King, Me And Mr. Johnson, Back Home and The Road to Escondido.

The third of these featured collaborations with Stevie Wonder and Toni Braxton, while the Grammy-nominated Motown spawned the US hit cover of "Ain't No Mountain High Enough".

Climie's songwriting success continued into the 2010s, with Sara Evans cracking the American country music charts for more than six months with her cover of "My Heart Can't Tell You No", while Chris Medina – who had already reached number one in a number of territories around the world with his first single – collaborated with Climie on his second single, "One More Time", and several songs on the album What Are Words.

In 2016, Climie was the co-producer with Clapton on the album Live in San Diego which was recorded during the "Doyle & Derek World Tour" in 2007.