Written by the band members, the song was produced by Alex Sadkin and the group's lead vocalist Tom Bailey.

Released in the United Kingdom in late 1983, the song peaked at number four on the UK Singles Chart in November of that year.

"Emotionally, it was written as the result of some argument that was resolved between Alannah and myself", explained Tom Bailey in an August 2014 interview with Songfacts.

The song became the Thompson Twins' biggest hit in America,[7][8] but at the same time it pressured the band to produce top-selling music, even if they were not completely comfortable with that, as Alannah Currie stated in an interview with David Oriard of The Spokesman-Review:[9] The biggest trouble that we've had basically is that the song, "Hold Me Now" was a huge hit, it was really big here, it was really big all over the world.

"Hold Me Now" is a pop, new wave and synthpop ballad,[10] performed with a "hypnotic, swaying groove",[11] that features the sound of a marimba in the background.

[13] While most of the group's previous songs have a dance-oriented sound, "Hold Me Now" has a mainstream piano-based melody but keeps the prominent bass line and Currie's Latin percussion of earlier releases.

In a review of the group's album Into the Gap, Parke Puterbaugh, from Rolling Stone magazine, said that the band took a "new and drastic tangent" and that they "have slowed it all down to bring the human factor into clearer focus", adding that "Hold Me Now" maintains a "hypnotic, swaying groove that suggests reserves of pastoral contentment even in the wake of the storm".

[11] Robert Christgau, in a review for The Village Voice, said that the song "is a classic on chord changes alone, even though Tom Bailey sings it", adding that nothing else in the album Into the Gap "approaches its heart-tugging mastery".

[15] J. D. Considine, in a review for The Washington Post, commented that the song's melody adds "accessibility but could easily turn to dreary monotony".

[17] The music video for "Hold Me Now" was directed by Rupert James, produced by Tim Bevan, and edited by Brian Grant and Nick Morris.

[19] It became the band's first top five in the country,[20] and their biggest seller earning a gold certification by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) in January 1984.