My sister Alex and I are less than two years apart in age and, due to my parents superb planning skills, one grade apart in school. We also shared a bedroom until I was a senior in high school and shared a car until my senior year of college (by orders of my mother, though, we were not allowed to live in the same dorm). We had just enough common interest to ensure that we would end up hanging out in the same crowd and were just different enough to make catfights inevitable. To make matters more complicated, no one in our family could get us straight, even though we look nothing alike, so if one of us got into trouble, my parents would scream "Liz-Lex!" or, if my mom and dad hit the apex of pissed-off confusion, "Lez!"
Needless to say, my sister and I didn't always get along. This baffled my mother, who grew up surrounded my brothers, and most of our friends, save for the few who also have sisters thisclose in age. However, what the sisterless don't understand is that our bonding moments equal (maybe surpass since we stopped sharing a room years ago) the numerous occasions on which we screamed "You bitch!" and reached for the other's hair. (For the record, I'm the hair-puller. I'm really no good in a fight. You don't want me to have your back.)
When we were young, a lot of our sisterly bonding happened while we were on our beds doing homework and listening to KROQ. We always listened to KROQ because there was always the chance that we would both hear something we liked, despite my sister's aversion towards Morrissey and the feeling of nausea I would get whenever I heard Pearl Jam. So, this one night, we're listening to KROQ and Doug the Slug was introducing the Furious Five at Nine, which was our favorite programming segment particularly when it had a theme. This night, the theme was Top 5 Modern English Songs. Alex and I just stared at each other.
"There's more than one Modern English song?" she asked.
"I don't know, maybe they're big in England or something."
Number 5 on the countdown was "I Melt with You," which we always reference by singing the hook, "I'll stop the world and melt with you." So was number 4 and number 3 and so on and so forth.
My sister and I will contend that this was by far the best Furious Five at Nine ever. Better than the one when my best friend and I ended up as the second most annoying listeners. Better than the sex song countdown that made me physically unable to ever hear "Doot Doot" by Freur ever again. In fact, a few weeks ago, out of nowhere, my sister said to me, "Hey, Liz. Do you remember that Top 5 Modern English song countdown? That was one of the funniest things I ever heard."
In fact, I had no idea that there was more to Modern English that "I Melt with You" until I was in college and heard this.

This Mortal Coil "Sixteen Days/Gathering Dust"

Combining two fine Modern English tracks, 4AD supergroup This Mortal Coil created an epic with this 12". Of course, I didn't hear it until way after the fact and, at that point in time, it was incredibly difficult to find it. One of my friends found a copy of the 12" and gave it to me. From what I recall, it ended up on that big This Mortal Coil boxed set, but even that might be hard to score now. Anyhow, this is the original of "Gathering Dust."

Modern English "Gathering Dust"

You can find it on Life in the Gladhouse as well as on the album Mesh and Lace. Both are available at Amazon.com, but it looks like supplies are very limited.

While I was looking for Modern English goodies, I became annoyed with the amount of bands that have covered "I Melt with You." First of all, you don't mess with a classic, a song that by its simple inclusion in Valley Girl helped it define an era. (Shit, someone call the hyperbole police.) Seriously, though, that song is so tightly wound into the whole '80s pop culture thing that covering it is just plain old lame. I suggest covering this Modern English track, from the album Ricochet Days.

Modern English "Ricochet Days"

You can find that on Amazon too.