Named after Veruca Salt, the spoiled rich girl from the children's book Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl, Veruca Salt was formed in Chicago by Louise Post (guitar/vocals) and Nina Gordon (guitar/vocals). Post and Gordon were introduced through mutual friend Lili Taylor, and began playing music together. They wrote songs for a year and a half before being joined by Gordon's brother, Jim Shapiro, on drums and Steve Lack on bass guitar.

The band had done a handful of shows when Jim Powers of Minty Fresh Records asked them to sign to the independent label. The band's first release was the single "Seether"/"All Hail Me" on Minty Fresh Records, in 1994. The single was a success and Veruca Salt accompanied Hole on a tour, before releasing their first full-length album, American Thighs, which eventually reached Gold status.

After signing to Geffen Records, the band quickly gained in popularity as "Seether" became an MTV hit. A stop-gap EP recorded by Steve Albini, Blow It Out Your Ass It's Veruca Salt, was released in 1996.

Veruca Salt's popularity skyrocketed after their second full album, Eight Arms to Hold You, was released in 1997. Produced by Bob Rock, the album generated the hit lead single "Volcano Girls", which gained exposure as the opening theme to the teen comedy film Jawbreaker. Veruca Salt performed another single, "Shutterbug", on Saturday Night Live; however, instead of the featured musical group performing two songs as had been tradition, the musical performances were split between Sting and Veruca Salt. Shapiro left the band soon after the release of Eight Arms and was replaced by Stacy Jones (of Letters to Cleo and now[when?] American Hi-Fi). Jones toured with the band on the Eight Arms tour, but never recorded with them.[citation needed]

Songwriting was shared between Gordon and Post, though the two seldom collaborated. Rather, each would typically submit a complete song to the group and sing the lead vocal on that song, while the other would record backing vocals.

In 1996, Veruca Salt appeared as Pavement's replacement band in their video "Painted Soldiers".

In 1998, Gordon left the band to pursue a solo career (her first album Tonight and the Rest of My Life, was released in 2000). The undisclosed dispute between Gordon and Post has been described as "one of the greatest rock soap operas since Fleetwood Mac or Hüsker Dü."

Post, now the only original band member, recruited a new band, consisting of Stephen Fitzpatrick (guitar), Suzanne Sokol (bass guitar) and Jimmy Madla (drums), and continued to record and perform under the Veruca Salt name. The new band signed with Beyond Records. The first album with the new lineup was 2000's Resolver.

Suzanne Sokol left the band at the end of 2000. Post's friend, Gina Crosley, took her place. The new line-up toured in summer 2001, and spent time promoting Resolver in the UK. Crosley and Post then moved to Los Angeles, where they lived together and wrote songs that appeared on the Officially Dead EP. Crosley is credited with co-writing "Smoke & Mirrors", but left the band before the record was released. She also worked on songs that later appeared on IV, but no credit is officially given.

In December 2002, both Resolver and its lead single "Born Entertainer" were released, in Australia through Embryo Records/MGM. Following the release of "Born Entertainer", the label released the single "Officially Dead", which contained newly recorded tracks as well as a remix of "The Same Person".