Label Guide: Vault

Vault Records was founded by producer Jack Lewerke and Ralph Kaffel (later President of Fantasy Records) in 1963, and the label is best known for its early releases which helped creating the 'surf music' genre with bands like The Challengers. These early Vault albums were distributed by Atlantic's ATCO Records, until 1965 when distribution changed to San Francisco independent Autumn Records.

In 1966, Lewerke and Vault came into possession of Autumn's entire back catalogue when that label folded, and the new material helped keeping Vault afloat at a time when the popularity of surf music was quickly fading. But Vault could never repeat its early success so Lewerke sold the label to National Tape Distributors, a Milwaukee based distributor of prececorded music tapes that recently floated its shares on Wall Street and used that money to expand into California by acquiring the five biggest independent distributors at once.

This strategy ultimately failed and Jack Lewerke resigned in 1971, bringing the story of Vault Records to an end. National Tape Distributors went bankrupt in 1972 and Vault ceased to exist. However, Lewerke repurchased its master tapes and some of the Vault recordings were re-released on his new JAS Records label in the mid-1970s.