Songfacts®:

• This piano power ballad was written by frequent Rihanna collaborator James Fauntleroy and producer Brian Kennedy. The pair also collaborated on the Rated R tracks, "Fire Bomb" and "The Last Song."
• The track is a love song that could double as an ode to Rihanna's fans. Fauntleroy wrote the lyrics after Kennedy sent him some piano music. He told Genius: "Whenever I'm writing songs for Rihanna, I'm always thinking about specific things that we all know about her, but I'm also trying to make it something that everyone can relate to. 'Close to You' is about some things that I know she feels but that people also feel in general."
  
  "When you're thinking of any famous person that's had a relationship in the media, you remember that everybody has had that feeling and moment when they're alone and feeling sad. But people are more likely to pretend that nothing is wrong with them than the opposite."