Elvis’ 1968 movie begins very optimistically, with the wonderful helicopter shots of the magnificent Arizona scenery, accompanied by one of Elvis’ least known songs “Stay Away”, which portrays the homesickness of the protagonist. The song “Stay Away” was written by Sid Tepper and Roy C. Bennett and at Elvis’ apparent request, and was based on the traditional English folk tune “Greensleeves”. This was in fact the second attempt by the songwriters, after their first attempt “Evergreen”, was rejected by Elvis.
The soundtrack session for the movie took place at RCA’s Studio B in Nashville on 1 October 1967, however the song was not recorded at this time. Instead Elvis recorded “Stay Away” at the same studio on 16 January 1968, during a mini session which also produced “Too Much Monkey Business”, “Goin’ Home” and “U.S. Male” suggesting that the song was not originally intended for the movie.
Elvis and the band ran through fifteen takes, the first of which was curiously announced as the rejected song “Evergreen”, with the final take chosen to be the master, and almost immediately after the master was completed Jerry Reed added a guitar overdub, and finally after three takes, RCA finally had their record version which was faded nine seconds earlier than the undubbed master, at just two minutes thirty three. For the movie version however, a harmonica intro was added, and the fade took place at just two minutes nineteen.
