His father was sent to Auschwitz during WWII. Ferrat wrote about this in one of his earliest hit songs, "Nuit et brouillard" (Night and Fog).
He started out singing in the postwar cabarets of the Left Bank. He became well-known in the 1960s and '70s with several love songs and political chansons, one of which ("Potemkine") was banned from French TV.