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 “You Oughta Know” 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.
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!
“You Oughta Know” is the lead single from Alanis Morissette’s third album, Jagged Little Pill.
After releasing two commercially successful studio albums through MCA Records Canada, Morissette left the company and was introduced to new management.
Shortly after, she started working on new music, but didn’t make much progress until she made it to Los Angeles and met producer/songwriter Glen Ballard. Morissette and Ballard co-wrote “You Oughta Know.”
“You Oughta Know” was recored and mixed by Chris Fogel, who considers Francis to be one his mentors. Jimmy Boyle is credited for recording Dave Navarro and Flea’s contributions to the song, and Fogel re-tracked Flea to get his final takes.
An early version of the song exists with bass by Lance Morrison, who played on the rest of the album, and guitars by Glen Ballard.
“You Oughta Know” was nominated for three GRAMMYs, winning two.
In 1996, the single was nominated for three GRAMMYs, winning in the Best Rock Song and Best Female Rock Vocal Performance categories.
Despite it’s initial poor performance chart-wise, the song became a top ten hit in three genre charts in the US, peaking at #3 on the Active Rock charts, #7 on the Contemporary Hit radio charts, and #1 on Modern Rock.
The track also held a record for the longest run at #1 on the Billboard Alternative chart by a female artist. This record wasn’t broken until 2013, when Lorde released “Royals.”
With singles like “You Oughta Know” and “Ironic,” Jagged Little Pill is one of the best-selling albums of all time.
Jagged Little Pill was a #1 album in thirteen countries and sold over 33 million copies worldwide. 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 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 this prize with Fearless (2008).
