The album contains the band's two highest-charting Mainstream Rock Tracks entries, "Don't Get Me Wrong" and "My Baby", both of which reached number one.

Hynde fired Chambers because she thought his playing was unsatisfactory, though she would acknowledge in interviews that it was because he was still coping with the deaths of former members Pete Farndon and James Honeyman-Scott and it was affecting him musically.

The early recording sessions, produced by Steve Lillywhite, started with the Learning to Crawl lineup put together by Chrissie Hynde and Martin Chambers (following the deaths of fellow founding Pretenders James Honeyman-Scott and Pete Farndon) including guitarist Robbie McIntosh and bass guitarist Malcolm Foster (in addition to the band's touring keyboard player Rupert Black).

These first sessions resulted in the recording of a cover version of Jimi Hendrix's "Room Full of Mirrors", which would become the album's closing track.

[10] 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.

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.

The album also featured Pretenders' first power ballad: "Hymn to Her", a paean to femininity, written by Hynde's former schoolfriend Meg Keene.

"[9] Halfway through the tour, on the advice of manager Dave Hill, Hynde sacked Stevens and Worrell in an attempt to salvage the situation (although Cunningham was retained), a decision she would later refer to as ruthless.