Basil Glen Ballard, Jr. (born May 1, 1953) is an American songwriter, lyricist, and record producer. He is best known for co-writing and producing Alanis Morissette's Jagged Little Pill (1995), which won Grammy Award for "Best Rock Album", and "Album of the Year" , and was ranked by the Rolling Stone as one of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. He is also well known for his collaborations with composer Alan Silvestri. He was involved in the recording and writing of Michael Jackson's Thriller and Bad. As a writer he co-wrote songs including "Man in the Mirror" (1987) and "Hand in My Pocket" (1995). He is the founder of Java Records. He won the 2006 Grammy Award for Best Song Written for a Motion Picture for the song "Believe" (The Polar Express). In 2011, he founded his own production company known as Augury, a Hollywood atelier focused on developing music-driven projects in film, television, and theatre.