Get Close

Get Close is the fourth album by rock group The Pretenders, released in 1986. The album contains the band's two biggest Mainstream Rock Tracks chart hits, "Don't Get Me Wrong" and "My Baby", both of which reached #1.

Background

Get Close was recorded during a particularly transitional period of the band's career, featuring a variety of sessions and multiple personnel. The first of its recording sessions, produced by Steve Lillywhite, featured 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) which featured guitarist Robbie McIntosh and bass guitarist Malcolm Foster (plus the band's touring keyboard player Rupert Black). This resulted in a cover version of Jimi Hendrix's "Room Full of Mirrors". Shortly after the session 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."