Stay Away, Joe is a 1968 American comedy western film with musical interludes, set in modern times and starring Elvis Presley, Burgess Meredith, Joan Blondell, Katy Jurado and Thomas Gomez.
Joe persuades his congressman to give him 20 heifers and a prize bull so that he and his father can prove that the Navajos can successfully raise cattle on the reservation.
Joe trades in his horse at a used car dealership for a red convertible automobile from which he sells off the parts to obtain cash from a salvage yard.
When the prospective mother-in-law visits the Lightcloud's rundown shack, things go well until Glenda Callahan chases Joe through the house firing her shotgun.
[3] The screenplay was adapted from the failed Broadway musical Whoop-Up and retained many of the same plot devices and characters, including Joe's grandfather who refuses to live in a house, preferring his ancestral teepee.
At the end of the session, Presley made his record producer Felton Jarvis promise to never release "Dominick," the song written for him to sing to the bull.
The other two songs, "Stay Away, Joe" and "All I Needed Was the Rain," were not even featured on a promotional single for the film premiere, but instead respectively appeared on the budget albums Let's Be Friends in 1970 and Elvis Sings Flaming Star in 1969.
"Goin' Home" by Joy Byers would not be used, surfacing on the soundtrack to the next Presley film, Speedway, while a different song entitled "Stay Away," rewritten from the tune of "Greensleeves" by Sid Tepper and Roy C. Bennett, would appear as the B-side to the #28 hit single "U.S.
"[10] The Monthly Film Bulletin reported: "Meandering Elvis Presley comedy, rather short on invention except for an amiably hectic finale ...