If you were a kid (or teen, or young adult) in the mid-1980s, you couldn’t escape “If You Leave,” the international Top 10 hit by Liverpudlian synth-poppers Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark.

Composed by the band for the soundtrack of the 1986 John Hughes-produced teen saga Pretty in Pink, it remains a pip of a pop song, sliding between a perky keyboard hook and a breathy, addictive chorus — heaps of teenage melodrama and tremulous swooning, served to winsome perfection in 4.5 candy-coated minutes. The tune served as such a high-water mark for the band that it basically dwarfed all of their output before and after (in the States, at least). But OMD were a lot more than mere one-hit wonders, and their 35th anniversary tour (stopping at the Showbox Market Saturday) should provide plenty of evidence to back that assessment up.

Singers/keyboardists Andy McCluskey and Paul Humphreys formed OMD in 1978, and they occupied a unique slot amongst their UK dance-music peers. McCluskey and Humphreys wedded their fondness for experimental electronic sounds (Kraftwerk’s repetitive throb and Brian Eno’s free-form ambience, in particular) with keen pop hooks, amassing a big following in their homeland. It’s no stretch to argue that OMD’s 1983 gem Dazzle Ships — with its cushions of atmosphere, evocative lyrics, and electronic pulse periodically goosed by Malcolm Holmes’ steady drumming –r eally feels like the less-dour precursor to Radiohead’s electronica-on-Doggy-Downers Kid A.

OMD moved in a poppier direction and racked up an impressive handful of great singles during the back half of the ’80s (“Tesla Girls,” “So In Love,”  and “Forever Live and Die,” to name a few), but they never managed to follow up the mammoth success of “If You Leave.” By 1991, McCluskey was the last man standing, and OMD faded into relative oblivion for a couple of decades.

If time’s taught us anything though, it’s that good pop bands never die: They just regain their relevance when the next generation cannibalizes ‘em. And with a whole new squadron of electro-scamps both experimental (Air, M83) and frothy (Twin Shadow, GOTYE) going to the same well, OMD sounds positively  prescient today.

This Showbox gig marks an honest-to-God full-fledged reunion of the band’s original line-up, with McCluskey and Humphreys joined by original drummer Holmes and multi-instrumentalist Martin Cooper. The band’s also touring behind a new full-length: Sparklingly hooky and refreshingly odd at equal turns, English Electric presents a bunch of fifty-something blokes beating today’s laptop-toting electro-kids at their own game. It’s like the last 25 years never happened…in a good way.