Try this...
HTML:
<button id="a1" type="button" onclick="return a1_onclick('a1')">a1</button>
JavaScript:
<script language="javascript" type="text/javascript">
function a1_onclick(id) {
document.getElementById(id).style.backgroundColor = "#F00";
}
</script>
Note: be sure of sending arguments between ' ' signs like ('a1') in HTML code