The best Academy Award winning songs: #12 "High Hopes" from "A Hole in the Head" (1959)

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“A Hole in the Head” is a pleasant dramedy directed by the legendary Frank Capra (“It’s a Wonderful Life”). The original Broadway play was about a Jewish family but changed to Italian to accommodate Frank Sinatra. His wealthy brother is played by Edward G. Robinson. Sinatra plays a beach bum loafer owning a seedy Miami Beach hotel in financial trouble. He is a widower with an 11-year-old boy whom he treats more as pal than son. “‘Cause he had high hopes He had high hopes He had high apple pie In the sky hopes” There comes a moment when father and son (played by Eddie Hodges) are feeling down and start singing a silly song about an ant moving a rubber tree plant. Beneath silly lyrics is a joyous song meant to lift sagging spirits and encourage to accomplish the seemingly impossible. You have a master musical icon putting over this song by famed four time Oscar winning team James Van Heusen and Sammy Cahn. “High Hopes” appears on the Sinatra album “All the Way.”