With
Roy Thomas Baker producing, the sessions for the album took place at Crystal Studios in Hollywood. In the
Kerrang! interview, Anderson revealed that he'd deliberately set up an atmosphere with studio props, much as he had done for the
Tales from Topographic Oceans sessions twelve years previously. "I went out and bought a camel - a stuffed camel. And we had a little Christmas tree in the corner... plenty of grog! On the last three days we didn't sleep - because you can't release a Christmas album in January and we had to get it ready in time." Most of the album was synthesizer-based, working from keyboards played by Mike Marshall and
Fairlight CMI programmed and played by
Rhett Lawrence. Further contributors to the album included several gospel choirs (Sandra Crouch & Friends, the choir of the Calvary Baptist Church in Santa Monica, and the Inspirational Choir from the First Seventh Day Adventist Church) and two children's choirs (the Reach for the Stars Singers and the choir from Millikan Middle School in
Sherman Oaks). Guitars were played by Anderson's Yes bandmate
Trevor Rabin and by
Elliot Easton of
The Cars. Drums were played by
Frankie Banali of
Quiet Riot and
Ric Parnell (
Atomic Rooster/
Spinal Tap), with
Paulinho da Costa contributing percussion. Anderson's daughter
Jade, aged five years old at the time, sang the version of "
Jingle Bells" which closed out the album. Although
3 Ships is generally considered to be a Christmas music album, on the original track listing only five of its songs were traditional Christmas songs or carols, outnumbered by seven Anderson originals (one of which had been co-written with
Vangelis but held back from a
Jon & Vangelis project), many of which had only tenuous Christmas connections. The album style itself also varied from song to song, moving between gospel pop, soul, synth pop, New Age and electronic experimental pop with heavy use of
Fairlight CMI. ==Releases==