Francis Buckley is a GRAMMY-winning recording and mixing engineer with a broad range of studio experience with breakout bands, well established chart-toppers, and Hollywood films. Francis started his career working at W.E. Studios in Redondo Beach in 1979. He eventually went on to record and mix Black Flag’s first album, Damaged, while working as chief engineer at Unicorn Records.
In 1981, during his ten-year stand as Director of Recording Services at MCA Music Publishing, he met producer and fellow GRAMMY winner Glen Ballard, with whom he had a fourteen-year partnership. Ballard produced Alanis Morissette’s Jagged Little Pill from which “Ironic” comes.
Francis won Best Engineered Album at the 1997 GRAMMYs for the Quincy Jones album Q’s Jook Joint. As an engineer and mixer, Francis has worked on many other multi-platinum recordings, including The Pointer Sisters’ Breakout, Paula Abdul’s Forever Your Girl, and Wilson Phillips’s Wilson Phillips.
Francis’s recording and mixing chops can be heard on over 100 million units sold worldwide, with past work including the likes of Aerosmith, Van Halen, Steve Vai, Deborah Cox, and Billy Dean.
Interestingly, Francis has also worked on many films, including the Adam Sandler hit The Wedding Singer (additional music mixer), Phoenix (music mixing engineer), and Things You Can Tell Just By Looking At Her (music recordist).
He’s even put together an online instructional course, Francis Buckley’s Audio Engineering Fundamentals, which guides students through the fundamentals of audio engineering. Francis is currently an instructor at Musicians’ Institute in Hollywood, from which this bio was adapted!
“Ironic” is the third single from 1995’s Jagged Little Pill.
“Ironic” was recorded by Francis and mixed by Chris Fogel, who considers Francis to be one of his mentors.
The song reached #1 on the Canadian RPM Top Singles chart and remained there for 6 weeks. It charted well around the world, reaching the top five in Australia, New Zealand, and Norway.
In the US, the song reached #4 in April 1996 and is Morissette’s highest-charting single on the Billboard Hot 100. “Ironic” would go on to be certified gold, win the Juno Award for Single of the Year, and receive two GRAMMY nominations in 1997 for Record of the Year and Best Short Form Music Video.
Jagged Little Pill is one of the most successful albums of all time.
Jagged Little Pill was a #1 album in thirteen countries and sold over 33 million copies worldwide, making it one of the best-selling records of all time. Morissette became the first Canadian artist to achieve a double diamond certification.
Jagged Little Pill was also nominated for a staggering 9 GRAMMYs, winning 5! It most notably won Album of the Year, making Morissette the youngest artist in history to win the honor at just 19 years old. She held the record until 2010, when Taylor Swift won with Fearless (2008).
