Released in 1987, 10 years after Elton John's Greatest Hits Volume II, the compilation album features his greatest hits from 1979 to 1986 and was made available only in the United States and Canada.

The album was initially released under Geffen Records after Elton John returned to his US label.

One-third of the album is composed of songs from Too Low for Zero, John's 1983 album that received the most critical and commercial acclaim for the early 1980s, including the songs "I Guess That's Why They Call It the Blues" and "I'm Still Standing".

Some of the John's less successful songs were also included on the tracking because they had been released in the past year.

In 1992, two years after MCA purchased Geffen, Greatest Hits Volume III was removed from the artist's catalogue and replaced with the Greatest Hits 1976–1986 album, and due to copyright issues, two tracks from Greatest Hits Volume II, "Don't Go Breaking My Heart" and "Sorry Seems to Be the Hardest Word" were moved to Greatest Hits 1976–1986 and replaced with "Tiny Dancer" and "I Feel Like a Bullet (In the Gun of Robert Ford)".