PHP4 and MySql - Search Results Question?

I'm using PHP4 and MySQL -- I'm trying to write a small search engine -- got it working, however, what I'd like to do is return the TOTAL records found. You see, right now I am using LIMIT within my SQL -- so I only return 15 results at a time. How do I get the total (say for example there are 2000 records) -- do I need to COUNT(*) first, then perform another SELECT query for my search? Or, is there a PHP/MYSQL command that returns the total records matching my SELECT query irregardless of the LIMIT ?? Thanks Jason