After the box office flop of the musical film Give My Regards to Broad Street (1984), McCartney decided that it was time for a change of pace in his solo career.

In an attempt to give his music a more contemporary sound, he joined forces with Hugh Padgham, an in-demand, multiple award-winning producer famed for having recorded Peter Gabriel, Phil Collins, Genesis, the Human League, the Police, and XTC.

[3] The album was not finished until the end of 1985, by which time only one song would see release from its sessions – the title track to the film Spies Like Us (1985), joined by Phil Ramone in the producer's chair.

As a result of this disappointing commercial reception, author Howard Sounes writes, McCartney appointed a former Polydor Records executive, Richard Ogden, as his manager, "to help revive his career".

[11] In 1993, Press to Play was remastered and reissued on the CD as part of The Paul McCartney Collection series with his 1985 hit "Spies Like Us" and an alternate mix of impending 1987 UK success "Once Upon a Long Ago" as bonus tracks.

[4] AllMusic editor Stephen Thomas Erlewine admired the track "Press", but gave the album a 3 out of 5 star rating saying: "McCartney is dabbling in each of his strengths, just to see what works.

"[22] In the Los Angeles Times, Terry Atkinson praised "Press" as "a sprightly, sunny delight – one of the most playful, positive pop songs ever written about the joy of sex and its link with love", but opined that overall "the album finds McCartney as lost as usual and Stewart of little help".

O'Toole adds: "Press to Play, along with McCartney II, arguably laid the foundation for his future musical experiments under the name The Fireman (particularly the first two albums, Strawberries Oceans Ships Forest and Rushes).