Greatest Hits 1976–1986 is a collection of hits by Elton John released in the United States only by MCA Records in 1992. It replaced an earlier compilation, Geffen's 1987 release Elton John's Greatest Hits Vol. 3. This was necessitated because of a shift in the control of copyrights and a resulting reshuffling of compilation albums.
Background
Ultimate ownership of Elton John's recordings had always rested with the artist's British labels. Hence DJM/This Record Company Ltd. owned all of John's recorded output up to and including 1976's Here and There while John's own royalty collection company owned the recordings from 1976's "Don't Go Breaking My Heart" single and Blue Moves album onwards, which were released outside North America by The Rocket Record Company. However, in the United States and Canada, this was obscured by the labels distributing the same material locally. MCA and its subsidiaries released all of the artist's product up through 1980's 21 at 33, resuming with 1987's Live in Australia with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra while Geffen released everything from 1981's The Fox through 1986's Leather Jackets. 1977's Greatest Hits Volume II collection had, on both sides of the Atlantic, included material owned by both British proprietors. This had required an agreement between DJM and The Rocket Record Company in the UK, but not in North America where all recordings in question were under MCA anyway. Geffen's "Volume 3" compilation had simply picked up where its predecessor had left off. In 1992, Elton John signed to PolyGram Records worldwide. The deal gave PolyGram the rights to all of John's pre-1976 recordings. This meant that Greatest Hits Volume II could no longer be presented as before. Two years before, MCA had acquired Geffen Records. In the new configuration, 1976's "Don't Go Breaking My Heart" and "Sorry Seems to Be the Hardest Word" were shifted over to the new "Volume 3" The new collection also included "Who Wears These Shoes?", a minor 1984 hit that had been passed up by the earlier collection. To make room for these additions, two songs from the Geffen collection were purged, namely the 1983 album track "Too Low For Zero" and the 1986 non-hit "Heartache All Over the World". The running order bore little resemblance to that of the Geffen compilation. PolyGram was bought by MCA's successor Universal Music Group in 1998, thus consolidating worldwide distribution rights to all of John's catalogue. Elton John currently co-owns his entire catalogue with Universal. The album is currently available from Island Records. After the consummation of the Universal/PolyGram merger, it was decided that Island would act as one of two American labels for Elton John, and Mercury Records would be his international label. In the US, it was certified gold in January 1994, platinum in October 1995 and 2x platinum in August 1998 by the RIAA.
