The Pretenders' previous album,
Learning to Crawl (1984), was a critical and commercial success. On the heels of its success the band performed at
Live Aid in 1985. The same year
Chrissie Hynde appeared with UB40 on their number-one single "
I Got You Babe". Shortly after the sessions, Hynde decided that Chambers' playing had deteriorated: "Martin was playing crap. Martin just fucking lost it, and to think about it, why shouldn't he have lost it? He'd just lost his two best friends. I was insane. I was traumatised. But you don't know it at the time. I was trying to keep my shit together. To be honest Martin was playing crap and I knew musically I was losing my inspiration. But I'd tried too hard and come too far to let it all go, so Martin went instead." Having fired Chambers from the band, Hynde was left as the only remaining original member. Foster's departure shortly afterwards left the band without a rhythm section. With
Jimmy Iovine and
Bob Clearmountain taking over production duties, about half of the album was recorded by Hynde and McIntosh with high-profile session players. Bass guitar was provided by
Bruce Thomas (of
the Attractions),
Chucho Merchán and John McKenzie, and drums by
Simon Phillips,
Steve Jordan and
Mel Gaynor, then of
Simple Minds, with assorted keyboards and synthesizers provided by
Tommy Mandel,
Patrick Seymour,
Funkadelic's
Bernie Worrell, Bruce Brody (ex-
Patti Smith Band) and
Wix Wickens.
Carlos Alomar made further contributions on percussion and synthesizer programming. The later album sessions featured contributions from two further musicians: former
James Brown bass guitarist
T.M. Stevens and ex-
Haircut One Hundred drummer
Blair Cunningham. Towards the end of the sessions, Stevens and Cunningham were recruited into the band full-time. On release,
Get Close was credited to a formal Pretenders lineup of Hynde, McIntosh, Stevens and Cunningham, despite the latter two members only having played on half of the album. All four musicians appeared on the album cover art, as had been the case with previous Pretenders albums. Unlike previous albums, however, this time Hynde was the only member pictured on the front cover, emphasizing her dominance of the band (as would be the case with all subsequent Pretenders album art). In comparison to the
New Wave stylings of the first three Pretenders albums,
Get Close had a strong funk element (partially due to the substantial session contributions from American funk, soul and rhythm and blues players). The album also featured Pretenders' first power ballad: "Hymn to Her", a paean to femininity, written by Hynde's former schoolfriend Meg Keene. The band also recorded a Carlos Alomar song, "Light of the Moon". ==Tour and aftermath==