This listing features a highly rare and fascinating 10-inch shellac 78 RPM single: "Cruel-Hearted Woman" backed with "Big Stars are Falling" by Texas barrelhouse pioneer Wilson "Thunder" Smith (Catalog Number: Gold Star 615). Released in 1948 by Bill Quinn’s Houston independent imprint, this specific copy is a premier artifact for blues discographers due to its compelling manufacturing anomaly.
Side A ("Cruel-Hearted Woman"): A haunting, low-slung Texas country-blues masterpiece driven by Smith’s distinctively heavy, rhythmic piano structures and deep vocal phrasing.
Side B ("Big Stars are Falling"): A slow-drag, atmospheric blues track demonstrating the foundational piano and vocal work that shaped the immediate post-war Houston soundscape.

In the late 1940s, Bill Quinn's Houston-based Gold Star Recording Company was operating two parallel streams of cultural preservation: documenting rural "Hillbilly" and Cajun music for white audiences, alongside raw down-home blues for the rapidly expanding African American urban hubs.
This specific release captures a historic crossover moment in independent pressing plant history. Due to a label stock mix-up or immediate postwar paper shortage at Quinn's localized Houston operation, Thunder Smith’s deep, uncompromising country blues was pressed directly onto the red-and-gold corporate stock intended for country music. This stark visual juxtaposition encapsulates the beautifully loose, unstandardized nature of independent regional labels before corporate distribution patterns ironed out these quirks in the 1950s.
The Rare Label Variation: While standard 600-series Gold Star blues items were mostly pressed on standard black labels, this red-and-gold "King of the Hillbillies" stock variation is a prized prize for completionist regional specialists.
The Partnership Foundations: Wilson "Thunder" Smith is famously revered as the creative partner to Sam "Lightnin'" Hopkins. The pair traveled directly from the rural agricultural fields together to cut their earliest historical sessions for Quinn in Houston.
A Jukebox Jumper: Independent regional 78s were produced in small batches and primarily spent their lives enduring heavy acoustic degradation inside noisy Texas beer-parlor jukeboxes. Surviving copies with this level of gloss and minimal surface wear are incredibly hard to come by.
Condition Report (VJM Grading System)
Side A ("Cruel-Hearted Woman"): V+ (Very Good Plus) — Retains a healthy amount of its original factory gloss under direct inspection. Surface shows minor, purely superficial handling marks, paper wisps, and faint scuffs consistent with careful archive storage. Plays remarkably strong and clear over any minor background floor noise.
Side B ("Big Stars are Falling"): V++ (Very Good Plus Plus) — Even cleaner and highly reflective. Surfaces are exceptionally smooth, completely avoiding heavy grey acoustic groove wear, deep tracking gouges, chips, or stress cracks.
Labels: The highly unusual red-and-gold "King of the Hillbillies" variant labels are remarkably crisp and colorful. Text lines are fully sharp, the central spindle hole is tight with next to no trail wear, and both sides are completely free of writing, sticker residue, or ink stamps.
Please add our store to your saved sellers list, as we are continuously making further selections from the Michel Chaigne archive available over the coming weeks.
Postage & Packaging
Specialist Packing: Professionally packed by an experienced 78 RPM specialist trader. The disc will be strictly sandwiched between multiple layers of heavy cardboard stiffeners swathed in bubble wrap and fully suspended in a rigid box with loose-fill padding to guarantee zero movement during transit.

Worldwide Shipping: Promptly dispatched and fully tracked worldwide from the UK.