The Holidays always seem to bring out the best in many.  With Jon Anderson of Yes fame, it is brought out in his 1985 Holiday offering, 3 Ships.  This year, Voiceprint from the UK released a 22nd Anniversary re-master and expanded version of 3 Ships.  Prior to that, an original CD copy of this album was fetching upwards of $60 on the collector’s lists…if one could be found. 

3 Ships is quite a good Holiday set, split between original songs that have a defined celebratory atmosphere attached to them in the inimitable Anderson voice, and some pretty fantastic Anderson renditions of traditional favourites that include the entrancing “O Holy Night,” where he share vocal duties with Sandra Crouch, “The Holly and the Ivy,” “Three Ships,” “Ding Dong Merrily on High,” and a short “Jingle Bells” as sung by his then young daughter, Jade (who now is a recording artist herself).

What makes this a more unique Holiday set is the fact that more than half of the album is filled with original songs.  Anderson succeeded in making this a complete gift in that he manages to effectively stitch the originals and the traditional songs into one cohesive unit.  Played start to finish, you have a very original creation that is a clear winner and fun to listen to.  I enjoy it so much that a Holiday period does NOT go by without this disc having played five or more times.  And that’s since its release date of 1985.

3 Ships is a through and through Holiday celebration album, with songs written by Jon Anderson for the most part.  Vangelis contributes a song (“Easier Said Than Done”), and co-writes one with Anderson (“Candle Song”), here included as a bonus track.  This CD adds five bonus tracks, all excellent tunes however it is easy to see why they were pared from the original album.  While they are great to have (and I am ecstatic to have them) they do disrupt the flow of the original track listing a bit as they are different kinds of songs.

If you’re keen to own this (and you should be), I’d jump on this opportunity to acquire (or reacquire) a copy before it is out of print again.  The nice sounding re-master, the bonus tracks, and the re-designed booklet (no liner notes, but contains lyrics and credits), make this an important Holiday album to have in your collection.