While that may be, the word’s usage in “Money For Nothing” was clearly not about a cigarette. 
That is true. It was a derogatory term 40 years ago, too.
Ooga-chaka was first added to Hooked On A Feeling by Jonathan King, who in turn was emulating the pseudo native American chant in the Johnny Preston song, Running Bear.
I totally missed that!
“Faggot” in that song conveys exactly what it means in the US, but the point is that it’s not in the voice of the singer, but put in the words of a bigot worker watching MTV. It’s a satirical song, and satirical songs pointing out bigotry should have some leeway in using bad language IMHO.
In that particular song, it uses the American meaning.
The whole point of the song is that it is the rantings of an ignorant redneck whom the audience is supposed to disagree with, but apparently that’s too subtle for some people.
Timely thread - just yesterday I was listening to a oldies station on the radio while driving along and the much beloved Four Tops song Ain’t No Women (Like the One I Got) was playing. And once again I was thinking that that one line no longer scans all that great:
“I would kiss the ground she walks on
'Cause it’s my word, my word she’ll obey, now”
Not quite as outré as some of the others as many people today are still fine with that kind of sexism, but it does speak to a time and culture that is (thankfully) slowly passing away.
It’s worth noting that the most offensive part of this isn’t the song, but rather King himself, who turned out to be a rather nasty pedophile.
Cigarettes are still referred to as “fags”, while “faggots” are meatballs made of offal. But the homophobic slur is also used in Britain, alas. And Dire Straits weren’t singing about meatballs.
5:15 by The Who
“Girls of fifteen
Sexually knowing”
The other parts of Money for Nothing include racist lyrics from the bigotted character’s pov.
Although this song can’t be described as “popular,” it falls into the same “now creepy and unacceptable” category. It was written by songwriter and artist Bill LaBounty, and is called “The Kissing Booth.” Some of the lyrics go like this:
Pardon me, Compadre,
May I have this place in line?
You see, the woman I love is standing there
Underneath that cardboard sign.And saying,
Fifty cents a hug at the kissing booth,
To buy a little love at the kissing booth.
Loan me fifty cents for the kissing booth.One petal say she love me,
One petal say she don’t.
I need a half-a million dollars
To love that woman like I want.Cause it costs
Fifty cents a hug at the kissing booth…
I’m not familiar with the Sha Na Na version, but the song was originally by “David Seville” (Ross Bagdasarian) who did the Witch Doctor with his “chipmunk” voice. I don’t hear anything “African” in the vocals, but the original artwork presumably wouldn’t fly today.
Today, totally randomly, I thought of the Elton John song “I Think I’m Gonna Kill Myself”, musing to myself, that it would never get made today.
Sample of lyrics (the singer is a teenager):
I think I’m gonna kill myself
Cause a little suicide
Stick around for a couple of days
What a scandal if I died
The unreleased Stones song “Cocksucker Blues” is a funny one.
Originally done because the record company they were leaving claimed that their contract required them to deliver one more completed song to fulfill the terms. So they produced this one: some lyrics:
Well, I’m a lonesome schoolboy
And I just came into townOh where can I get my cock sucked?
Where can I get my ass fucked?
I may have no money
But I know where to put it every time
This met the contract terms, but they knew the record company would never release in the 1960’s, and thus never make money from it. So it was a deliberate insult to the record company, because it was too offensive to release. But the modern LGBT+ community would probably consider it neutral or even friendly.
I’ll stick my knife right down your throat baby, and it hurts
Wow, if that’s the alternative I’d feel lucky just to get the midnight whipping!
“Fag” in BrE is a slang term for a cigarette, but in that sense it’s not an abbreviation of “faggot”, which was never a term for a cigaratte. It’s from “fag end”. A fag was a roll or bale of cloth; the fag end was the end of the roll, where the fabric was which was often coarse, loose, or damaged. Hence “fag end”, abbreviated in time to “fag”; a remnant, or something of little value. Orginally “fag” referred to a cigarette butt or to a very cheap cigarette; it time it came to refer to any cigarette.
I don’t know if it qualifies as popular (the video got regular airplay on MTV) but "I’d Rather See You Dead* by Pat Travers comes to mind.
Actually, the Gary Puckett song cycle (Young Girl>This Girl Is a Woman Now>Woman Woman) ends up with him begging the Woman to stay with him in Don’t Give In.
For real unregenerate male chauvinism, Lou Christie’s Lightning Strikes Again by Lou Christie (co-written by Twyla Herbert, a grown woman who should have known better) makes the Rolling Stones sound like feminists. Or as one of my friends succinctly put it, “Lou Christie is a bigger pig than Gary Puckett.”
And there’s the other Cher song, Half Breed,which was supposed to be a protest, but Cher couldn’t push the anger past the title.
I was coming to say the same thing but then 
I can see that.
Was Bitchin’ Camaro, Dead Milkmen, ever really popular? I loved it, but I do now cringe during the AIDS portion. I don’t often listen, except when I need a nostalgia hit. I have a lot of punk from that period that is similar.
I thought it was. It pops up every so often on my iPod.