He is generally acknowledged as being the first keyboard player in rock music to stand and take a leading role, thereby providing a model for others such as Keith Emerson and Rick Wakeman.
The addition prompted more changes than was intended, and despite an early success in being recorded at Radio Luxembourg in London by Cyril Stapleton, the band quickly fragmented.
The three remaining members, Ian Ellis, Harry Hughes, and Billy Ritchie decided to take the music in a radically new direction, and renamed the band 1-2-3.
The band's set consisted of standard pop and blues songs, but in Ritchie's hands, these pieces were studiously reshaped and rewritten, to become, in essence, new.
[5] The set included early rewritten versions of songs by David Bowie (I Dig Everything) and Paul Simon (America, The Sounds of Silence), both completely unknown at that time.
In the case of Ritchie, the playing would consist of almost two right hands, each with equal strength and speed, resulting in an especially dynamic sound and approach that was difficult for anyone else to emulate or copy.
During solos, by pushing the Hammond upwards and forwards with his right thigh, he would raise it at an angle, displaying the keyboards to the audience, tilting and moving the instrument as he played.
Only some years later, thanks to accolades from David Bowie and others, would Billy Ritchie be properly credited for the pioneering role he played in the development of electric keyboards in popular music.