Eight Arms to Hold You

For the 1985 Goon Squad song, see Eight Arms to Hold You (song).

Eight Arms to Hold You
Studio album by Veruca Salt
Released	February 11, 1997
Recorded	June 1996
Genre	Hard rock [1] heavy metal [1]
Length	51:10
Label	Outpost Geffen
Producer	Bob Rock
Veruca Salt chronology
Blow It Out Your Ass It's Veruca Salt (1996) Eight Arms to Hold You (1997) Resolver (2000)

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[2]
Christgau's Consumer Guide	[3]
The Encyclopedia of Popular Music	[4]
Entertainment Weekly	B+ [5]
MusicHound Rock	[6]
NME	7/10 [7]
Rolling Stone	[8]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide	[9]
Spin	7/10 [10]
Wall of Sound	36/100 [11]

Eight Arms to Hold You is the second studio album by alternative rock band Veruca Salt. It was released on February 11, 1997, through Outpost/Geffen Records.

Release

The album was produced by Bob Rock. The title is a reference to the working title for the Beatles' film eventually titled Help! ^[12]

Eight Arms to Hold You peaked at number 55 on the Billboard 200. The single "Volcano Girls", written by Nina Gordon, was a rock radio hit. Veruca Salt performed "Shutterbug", written by Louise Post, on Saturday Night Live . ^{[12] [13]} Besides those two, there were three other singles released from the album: "Benjamin", "The Morning Sad", and "Straight".

This was the last album to feature all of the original band members—Gordon, Post, Steve Lack, and Jim Shapiro—until the 2015 album Ghost Notes .

Track listing

All music is composed by Veruca Salt.

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
1.	"Straight"	Louise Post	2:32
2.	"Volcano Girls"	Nina Gordon	3:18
3.	"Don't Make Me Prove It"	Post	2:29
4.	"Awesome"	Gordon	3:32
5.	"One Last Time"	Post	4:45
6.	"With David Bowie"	Gordon	2:25
7.	"Benjamin"	Gordon	4:05
8.	"Shutterbug"	Post	4:16
9.	"The Morning Sad"	Gordon	3:08
10.	"Sound of the Bell"	Post	3:59
11.	"Loneliness Is Worse"	Gordon	5:00
12.	"Stoneface"	Gordon	2:44
13.	"Venus Man Trap"	Post	3:29
14.	"Earthcrosser"	Gordon	5:28
Total length:			51:10

Personnel

Veruca Salt

• Nina Gordon - guitar, vocals
• Louise Post - guitar, vocals
• Jim Shapiro - guitar, drums, backing vocals
• Steve Lack - bass guitar, guitar

Additional personnel

• Jim McGillveray - percussion
• Zach Ingraham - whiteboard
• Bob Rock - producer
• Randy Staub - engineer, mixing
• Brian Dobbs - engineer
• Mike Cusick - assistant engineer
• Jim Labinski - assistant engineer
• Jeff Lane - assistant engineer, mixing assistant
• Darren Grahn - assistant engineer
• George Marino - mastering
• Mike Gilles - digital editing, assistant engineer, digital programming

Charts

Album

Chart performance for Eight Arms to Hold You

Chart (1997)	Peak position
Australian Albums (ARIA) [14]	69
New Zealand Albums (RMNZ) [15]	34
Swedish Albums (Sverigetopplistan) [16]	40
UK Albums (OCC) [17]	95
US Billboard 200 [18]	55
Canada Top Albums/CDs ( RPM ) [19]	40

Singles

• 1997 – "Volcano Girls" – US Modern Rock Tracks - No. 8 ^[18]
• 1997 – "Volcano Girls" – US Mainstream Rock Tracks - No. 9
• 1997 – "Volcano Girls" – UK Singles Chart - No. 56 ^[20]
• 1997 – "Volcano Girls" – Australian ARIA singles chart - No. 47 ^[21]
• 1997 – "Volcano Girls" – Swedish singles chart - No. 32 ^[16]
• 1997 – "Shutterbug" – US Mainstream Rock Tracks - No. 39 ^[18]
• 1997 – "Shutterbug" – Australian ARIA singles chart - No. 114 ^[22]
• 1997 – "Benjamin" – UK Singles Chart - No. 75 ^[20]
• 1997 – "Straight" – US Mainstream Rock Tracks - No. 38

References

1. Stephen Thomas Erlewine. "Veruca Salt Biography". AllMusic . Retrieved June 17, 2025.
2. Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. "Eight Arms to Hold You". AllMusic . Retrieved January 24, 2018.
3. Christgau, Robert (October 15, 2000). "Veruca Salt". Christgau's Consumer Guide: Albums of the '90s . Macmillan Publishing. ISBN   9780312245603.
4. Larkin, Colin, ed. (2006). "Veruca Salt". The Encyclopedia of Popular Music. Vol. 8 (4th ed.). New York : MUZE : Oxford University Press. p. 427. ISBN   978-0-19-531373-4 – via Internet Archive.
5. Browne, David (February 14, 1997). "Eight Arms to Hold You". Entertainment Weekly . Archived from the original on July 25, 2014. Retrieved January 24, 2018.
6. Fuoco, Christina (1999). "Veruca Salt". MusicHound Rock: The Essential Album Guide. Visible Ink Press. p. 1198 – via Internet Archive.
7. Perry, John (January 3, 1997). "Eight Arms To Hold You". NME . Archived from the original on August 17, 2000. Retrieved January 24, 2018.
8. O'Connor, Rob (January 30, 1997). "Rolling Stone review". Rolling Stone . Archived from the original on December 6, 2008. Retrieved April 30, 2008.
9. The new Rolling Stone album guide. New York: Simon & Schuster. 2004. p. 849. ISBN   978-0-7432-0169-8.
10. Vowell, Sarah (March 1997). "Records". Spin . SPIN Media LLC. pp. 100–1.
11. Himmelsbach, Erik. "Wall of Sound Review: Eight Arms To Hold You". Wall of Sound . Archived from the original on February 11, 2001. Retrieved March 11, 2023.
12. Caro, Mark. "Veruca Salt reunites years after explosive breakup". chicagotribune.com. July 3, 2014. Retrieved September 29, 2020.
13. Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. "Veruca Salt". allmusic.com. Retrieved September 29, 2020.
14. Ryan, Gavin (2011). Australia's Music Charts 1988–2010 (PDF ed.). Mt Martha, Victoria, Australia: Moonlight Publishing. p. 294.
15. "Charts.nz – Veruca Salt – Eight Arms to Hold You". Hung Medien. Retrieved October 25, 2022.
16. "Swedishcharts.com – Veruca Salt – Eight Arms to Hold You". Hung Medien. Retrieved October 25, 2022.
17. "Official Albums Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved October 25, 2022.
18. "Veruca Salt - Chart history". Billboard. 2014. Retrieved January 30, 2014.
19. "Top RPM Albums: Issue 9895". RPM . Library and Archives Canada. Retrieved September 23, 2025.
20. "Official Charts > Veruca Salt". The Official UK Charts Company. Retrieved October 9, 2015.
21. "australian-charts.com > Discography Veruca Salt". Hung Medien. Retrieved October 9, 2015.
22. "Response from ARIA re: chart inquiry, received 2015-07-15". Archived from the original on July 16, 2015. Retrieved October 9, 2015– via Imgur.