Bill Pursell

Who is Bill Pursell?

Bill Pursell is an American composer and former session pianist. He had a brief but successful career as a pop musician before continuing on as a session player.

Pursell was born in Oakland, California and raised in Tulare. He studied composition in Baltimore and arranged for the U.S. Air Force Band while serving in World War II. Bill Pursell studied classical composition under Howard Hanson at the Eastman School of Music and earned a master's in composition in the mid-fifties. His symphonic poem "Christ Looking Over Jerusalem" was the inaugural recipient of the Edward B. Benjamin Prize in 1953. Later that decade, he worked with the Nashville Symphony Orchestra and taught at Tennessee State University and Vanderbilt University. In 1962 he signed with Columbia Records, who released a full-length album of his entitled Our Winter Love the following year. The album reached #15 on the Billboard 200 on the strength of the popularity of the title track, which hit #9 on the Billboard Hot 100 in addition to hitting #4 on the Adult Contemporary chart and #20 on the Black Singles chart. The arrangements for the album were made by Bill Justis and Pursell, and the orchestra was conducted by Grady Martin.