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Bill Pursell

“OUR WINTER LOVE”

(J. Cowell)

Columbia 42619

No. 9   March 30, 1963

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Bill was born in Oakland and raised in Tulare, California.   He learned to read music and play the piano

before the age of five.   After high school, he attended the Peabody Conservatory of Music in Baltimore on

a composition fellowship.   During World War II,  Bill worked for three years as the official arranger for

the Air Force Band in Washington, D. C.    Once the war was over, Bill  attended the Eastman School of

Music in Rochester, where he received a B.A. and M.A. degrees and  won the first Edward B. Benjamin

Award in composition.   Bill, wife, and three little ones moved to a hillside house in Tennessee, where for

years thereafter, he performed with the Nashville Symphony Orchestra and taught at Nashville’s

Vanderbilt University.

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In 1962, Columbia Records signed Bill to a contract and sent him into  the  studio–with Grady Martin

directing and BILL JUSTIS in the role of  music arranger–to cut an album that would contain Pursell’s

haunting instrumental, “Our Winter Love.”   Never to chart again, Bill Pursell did not just vanish, however.

Piles of singles and albums for the Dot, Epic, and Alton labels were issued.   Bill continued teaching, as

well as playing sessions behind Nashville’s country pickers.