Bill Pursell

Pianist Bill Pursell enjoyed a brief career as a pop composer in the 1960s, scoring a Top Ten hit with 1963's "Our Winter Love." A native of California, Pursell first studied music composition in Baltimore before serving in the U.S. Air Force during World War II, where he arranged for the military band. After the war, he continued his musical studies, and in 1953 his symphonic poem "Christ Looking Over Jerusalem" won the inaugural Edward B. Benjamin Prize. By the late '50s Pursell had migrated to Nashville, teaching at Tennessee State and Vanderbilt Universities and playing wi...