"Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile" Soundtrack Lyrics

"Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)" – Album Guide to Tracks and Key Scenes

Overview

Can a crocodile that never speaks, only sings, carry an entire film’s emotional weight? The soundtrack to “Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile” more or less bets everything on that idea.

“Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)” underpins the 2022 family musical with a bright, radio-ready pop sound that still behaves like a stage score. Benj Pasek & Justin Paul build numbers that function as classic musical-theatre “I want” songs, but they are wrapped in contemporary production and hooks designed to sit comfortably on a Shawn Mendes playlist. Almost every major song is diegetic: characters sing inside the world, on rooftops, in bathtubs, in messy kitchens, and eventually on a talent-show stage. That keeps the music tightly welded to character psychology rather than hovering as background wallpaper.

What distinguishes this album among modern family soundtracks is its balance of originals and legacy cuts. Mendes, as Lyle’s voice, carries eight tracks, but he shares space with Elton John’s “Crocodile Rock,” Stevie Wonder’s “Sir Duke,” The Gap Band’s “Steppin’ Out,” and Latin boogaloo classic “I Like It Like That.” Those placements are not random needle-drops; they are carefully chosen mood-switches that take the film from shy bedroom musical to full-blown family party.

In genre terms the score sits at a crossroads: glossy pop for accessibility; musical-theatre craft for structure; splashes of funk, soul, and disco for comic swagger. Pop-ballad writing underlines vulnerability and belonging (“Carried Away”); funk and old-school R&B mark adult spaces, confidence and joy (“Express Yourself,” “Sir Duke”); disco-funk and 80s R&B telegraph Hector’s showman flair and Lyle’s growing performance confidence (“Steppin’ Out,” “Crocodile Rock”). The styles map cleanly onto story beats rather than acting as a random jukebox.

How It Was Made

The film’s directors Will Speck and Josh Gordon treated “Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile” as a musical from the outset, hiring Pasek & Paul after their runs on “La La Land” and “The Greatest Showman” to architect the songs around a non-speaking, singing protagonist. The pair not only wrote but executive-produced the film’s musical side, shaping it so that Lyle’s songs effectively replace spoken dialogue in key scenes.

Songwriting was unusually collaborative: in addition to Pasek & Paul, the credits include Ari Afsar, Emily Gardner Xu Hall, Mark Sonnenblick, and Joriah Kwamé. Much of the work happened remotely during the COVID-19 pandemic, with writers trading drafts over Google Docs and Zoom sessions while fine-tuning melodies to Mendes’ vocal range and timbre. According to one trade interview, the team’s challenge was to “blend musical theater with contemporary pop” while still leaving room for a child audience to latch onto simple, repeatable hooks.

“Take a Look at Us Now” was the first song written and became the spine of the score: a recurring anthem for Hector P. Valenti and Lyle that appears as an opening number, reprises, and a finale arrangement. “Rip Up the Recipe” evolved in parallel with Mrs. Primm’s character shift into a stressed cookbook author, leading to lyric rewrites about perfectionism and fear of failure. “Carried Away” was explicitly designed as the emotional core, a power ballad that voices Lyle’s loneliness and yearning while he is caged at the zoo.

Shawn Mendes recorded his vocals with an unusual brief: he had to play a character, not himself. The producers have said his phrasing needed to do double duty: sell pop songs and communicate specific emotional beats for an animated creature whose face is mostly VFX. On the instrumental side, Matthew Margeson composed a separate orchestral score album, stitching around the songs with warm, family-friendly adventure cues and a few more suspenseful pieces for Mr. Grumps and the animal-control climax.

Tracks & Scenes

The film uses songs almost scene-for-scene like a stage musical. Below are the key placements and how they function on screen.

"Top Of The World" – Shawn Mendes
Where it plays: Around the 35-minute mark, Josh has failed to get Lyle to speak. Late one night on the brownstone roof, Lyle finally opens up by singing this track. New York’s skyline glows in the background while Josh stands stunned, the city noise receding as the camera circles the pair. The number is diegetic; Lyle literally serenades Josh while padding along the rooftop edges and pointing out the city’s landmarks in his own musical language.
Why it matters: This is Lyle’s true “I am” song and the turning point in his friendship with Josh. Musically it’s sleek pop, but structurally it’s classic musical theatre: the lonely kid and the hidden creature find each other through shared awe.

"I Like It Like That" – Pete Rodriguez
Where it plays: Very early in the film (around 3 minutes in), Hector browses an exotic pet shop searching for a partner for his act. The boogaloo groove pumps through the store speakers while he glides past parrots, snakes and other animals. As he moves deeper into the back room, the song keeps the energy buoyant right up to the moment he hears a baby crocodile singing from a cage in the shadows.
Why it matters: The track sets Hector’s Latin-inflected showman vibe and frames Lyle’s discovery not as horror but as a kind of dance-floor meet-cute between performer and future star.

"Take A Look At Us Now" – Javier Bardem & Shawn Mendes
Where it plays: The song appears several times. In its first big use, Hector brings baby Lyle home and launches into this brassy, vaudeville-style anthem in his cluttered brownstone. Posters, props and costumes fly around as he imagines the act they will build together. Lyle hesitates, then joins in on the choruses as Hector twirls him around the stage lights in rehearsal fantasies. Later reprises track their comeback attempts and, in the finale arrangement, Lyle’s TV-talent-show performance with Josh and the ensemble at the “Show Us What You Got!” contest around the 1:32 mark.
Why it matters: This is the show’s thesis statement about risk, performance, and chosen family. Each reprise recalibrates the promise: from Hector’s ego, to shared dream, to a broader declaration of the Primms’ solidarity with Lyle.

"Heartbeat" – Shawn Mendes
Where it plays: During the end credits at roughly 1:40, after the talent-show resolution and Mr. Grumps’ change of heart. As the camera drifts through sketches, photos and snapshots from the Primms’ future adventures, the track plays non-diegetically over the credits.
Why it matters: Functioning as the pop-single curtain call, “Heartbeat” distills the film’s message of found family and emotional vulnerability into a compact, streaming-ready package that sits neatly on Mendes’ own discography.

"Bye Bye Bye" – Claire Rosinkranz
Where it plays: Early in Josh’s school storyline, around the 19–20-minute mark. In the hallway, he stumbles into a group of kids filming a choreography video to this track. Later, he scrolls Trydy’s audition video where she dances to the same song, the camera cutting between her confident moves and his anxious face. The song is source music coming from phones and speakers, not score.
Why it matters: The bouncy alt-pop track crystallizes Josh’s sense of outsider status. The other kids have online personas and routines; Josh has a secret singing crocodile in his attic.

"Sir Duke" – Stevie Wonder
Where it plays: Around 42 minutes in, Lyle relaxes in the bathtub, singing along to this classic while surrounded by bubbles and bath toys. Mrs. Primm hears the music and Lyle’s voice echoing through the pipes, panics, and barges in, triggering their first chaotic confrontation. The song functions diegetically from a speaker and Lyle’s own enthusiastic vocals.
Why it matters: The joyous horn lines of “Sir Duke” underline how harmless and playful Lyle actually is, even as the human characters still read him as terrifying. It is a visual joke, a character beat, and a nod to Stevie Wonder’s celebration of music’s power all at once.

"Rip Up The Recipe" – Shawn Mendes & Constance Wu
Where it plays: Immediately after the bathroom scare (around 43 minutes). A shaken Mrs. Primm, cookbook author and chronic rule-follower, retreats to the kitchen to reassert control by cooking. Lyle tentatively joins her, nudging ingredients out of their precise places. The song explodes into a full kitchen musical number: flour storms, pans as percussion, a chorus of ruined but joyful dishes. Everything is completely diegetic, from clattering utensils to Lyle’s improvised harmonies.
Why it matters: It’s Mrs. Primm’s character song about perfectionism. By the end of the number, she admits that her strict “recipes” for parenting, career and life are choking her family, and Lyle becomes the unlikely coach teaching her to loosen up.

"We Made It" – Anthony Ramos
Where it plays: Around the 55-minute mark, after the Primms start embracing Lyle rather than hiding him. The family heads out into New York with Hector, exploring markets, rooftops and night streets. The song plays non-diegetically over a brisk montage of subway rides, food stalls, and Lyle’s gleeful interaction with city life, occasionally syncing to their dancing footsteps and smiles.
Why it matters: Ramos’ voice gives the mid-film a different texture, less Broadway and more pop-R&B swagger. The lyric “we made it” underlines that Josh and his parents finally feel like a unit instead of three anxious individuals.

"Steppin’ Out" – The Gap Band
Where it plays: Around 52 minutes in, late at night. Hector and Lyle rehearse in the attic while the Primms attempt to sleep downstairs. Funky bass lines and disco-era horns pulse as Hector tries to whip Lyle into show-ready shape, dancing, shouting counts, and sliding across the floorboards. The number plays diegetically through a stereo and Hector’s own vocal ad-libs.
Why it matters: The song links Hector to an older showbiz tradition of funky nightclub acts and cheesy variety shows, and it visually contrasts his relentless ambition with Lyle’s still-fragile confidence.

"Carried Away" – Shawn Mendes
Where it plays: In the zoo sequence around the 1:15 mark. Lyle has been taken away after Mr. Grumps’ legal push, and he lies alone in a concrete enclosure. At first the only sound is distant city rumble, then a quiet piano figure starts and Lyle sings, looking up through the bars. Montage shots show the Primms at home, the empty attic, Hector struggling with guilt, and Lyle pacing the small space as the song builds to its big chorus.
Why it matters: This is the emotional low point of the film and, as per the songwriters, the central statement about belonging. The ballad reframes Lyle’s exuberant musicality as a coping mechanism against loneliness and institutional control.

"How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved by You)" – James Taylor
Where it plays: Earlier in the film, around 29 minutes in. Mrs. Primm watches old wedding footage of herself and her husband with this softer version of the Motown classic playing. Later in the same segment, Lyle uses the song to reassure her that he is not a monster, echoing the melody in his own gentle croon from the shadows of the house.
Why it matters: The cue connects Mrs. Primm’s pre-move happiness to the warmth Lyle can bring back into the family. It quietly bridges human marital nostalgia and the new, stranger affection she feels for a singing crocodile.

"Express Yourself" – Charles Wright & The Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band
Where it plays: Roughly 52 minutes in, before “Steppin’ Out.” Mr. Primm finds Hector in the bathroom, blaring this funk staple while showering and rehearsing his patter. The scene is comic: Hector lip-syncs into a shampoo bottle, spinning and posing like he is already back on TV.
Why it matters: The song’s message about self-expression is on-the-nose, but intentionally so. It frames Hector as someone who lives in performance mode, even in the most mundane spaces, making his difficulty in accepting Lyle’s stage fright more understandable.

"Crocodile Rock" – Elton John
Where it plays: Late in the film around 1:29, after tensions ease. In the car, the family debates what to put on, and Lyle suggests this track. Once the first “la-la-la” hook hits, everyone joins in from their seats as the city whips by outside. The scene is diegetic sing-along, but cut like a music video with rapid shots of mouths, claws, and dashboard lights.
Why it matters: It is a meta wink, of course, but also a victory lap. The crocodile who used to freeze onstage now effortlessly leads a full-vehicle chorus on one of rock’s silliest, most joyful hits.

Notes & Trivia

• Shawn Mendes reportedly sings on eight tracks across the soundtrack, covering everything from big opening numbers to the closing-credit single.
• Most major songs were written to be diegetic, so that almost every time you hear Lyle sing, he is performing inside the story world, not in background score.
• Because the soundtrack’s style sits close to “The Greatest Showman,” some critics noted that “Carried Away” feels like a cousin to “This Is Me” in structure and build.
• The soundtrack album and the separate score album were released a week apart: pop songs first via Island Records, then Margeson’s orchestral cues via Madison Gate.
• On UK charts, the soundtrack reached the Top 20 on the Official Soundtrack Albums list, a solid showing for a children’s-book adaptation.

Music–Story Links

Lyle cannot talk, so every big leap in his character arc comes through song. “Top Of The World” is not just a rooftop number; it is the exact moment Josh realizes that the creature hiding in his attic is a sensitive observer of the city, not a lurking threat. The shift from silence to melody equals the shift from fear to friendship.

Mrs. Primm’s mini-arc is mapped cleanly through music. Her wedding flashbacks and “How Sweet It Is” underscore how far she has drifted from her old, relaxed self. “Rip Up the Recipe” then dramatizes her shedding perfectionism in a single kitchen blowout. By its final chorus she is literally dancing in the mess she once feared.

Hector’s relationship with Lyle is more complicated: every iteration of “Take A Look At Us Now” reflects how he sees their partnership. The early reprise is all ego and fantasy; the mid-film reprise is fragile, a rehearsal where he hopes they can finally get it right; the finale version hands the spotlight more to Lyle and Josh, forcing Hector to accept that the crocodile is not just his ticket to fame, but a member of a wider family.

“Carried Away” is the soundtrack’s clearest story-tool. When Lyle sings from the zoo, the song’s lyric about being swept up and then left alone mirrors the plot beat: his life literally got carried away from the attic. The ballad compresses the emotional impact of the legal and animal-control scenes into one concentrated musical argument for letting him go home.

Even shorter placements matter. “Bye Bye Bye” marks the social-media-savvy world Josh is failing to enter; “We Made It” covers the montage where he finally moves through the city without panic. The album, in other words, doesn’t just decorate the plot – it is the plot’s emotional shorthand.

Reception & Quotes

Critical response to the music skewed positive, though not universally glowing. Several reviewers saw the film as a vehicle for its songs first and family comedy second, with some praising that choice and others finding it a bit over-slick.

“As good as any movie about a cute singing crocodile has any right to be.”
Luke Y. Thompson, The A.V. Club

“A surprising musical delight… the songs are genuinely good, and Javier Bardem gives one of the performances of his life.”
The Guardian TV pick write-up

“Lyle only communicates through song, with original music by Pasek and Paul and well-known tunes… the film is first and foremost a vehicle for music.”
Cinemablend and The Collision, paraphrased

“Agreeable but formulaic… a CGI-meets-live-action fable carried by Shawn Mendes’ gentle vocals.”
Variety review

Audience chatter tends to focus less on technical craft and more on how easily children pick up “Top Of The World” and “Rip Up the Recipe.” Many family reactions mention kids singing Lyle’s parts on the way out of the cinema, which is exactly what a studio-friendly musical wants.

Availability-wise, the original motion picture soundtrack is widely streaming in digital form, while the Margeson score album covers the instrumental cues. A separate sheet-music songbook collects nine of the main songs for piano and voice, confirming the producers’ intention to push this into school and community performance spaces.

Interesting Facts

• The songwriting team used remote collaboration tools extensively, trading lyric and chord ideas for Lyle’s numbers across time zones during pandemic restrictions.
• Shawn Mendes’ single “Heartbeat” was released in advance of the film to introduce younger listeners to the project before they knew the original children’s book.
• A separate “sing-along” home-video release highlights four songs (“Top Of The World,” “Rip Up the Recipe,” “Take A Look At Us Now,” “Carried Away”) with on-screen lyrics.
• Elton John’s “Crocodile Rock” appears as a late-film car sing-along, but it also acts as a stealth marketing hook: the title alone helps parents remember the movie.
• The official soundtrack album credits Island Records, while the score album lists Madison Gate Records, reflecting the split between song-driven and orchestral releases.
• The sheet-music collection, approved by the composers, condenses the full film into nine performance-ready pieces for young pianists and vocalists.
• In some promotional materials, “Sir Duke” and “Top Of The World” are explicitly listed as trailer songs, underlining how central they are to selling the film’s tone.
• According to one producer interview, Mendes recorded multiple emotional intensities for key lines so animators could match Lyle’s facial animation to very specific vocal nuances.
• The soundtrack sits in the middle of Pasek & Paul’s filmography, between their work on “Dear Evan Hansen” (film version) and the holiday musical “Spirited.”

Technical Info

• Title: Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
• Film Year: 2022
• Type: Feature-film soundtrack and separate original score album
• Primary Songwriters: Benj Pasek & Justin Paul, with Ari Afsar, Emily Gardner Xu Hall, Mark Sonnenblick, Joriah Kwamé, Shawn Mendes and others
• Score Composer: Matthew Margeson (“Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile (Original Motion Picture Score)”)
• Key Performers: Shawn Mendes (Lyle’s vocals), Javier Bardem, Constance Wu, Anthony Ramos, Claire Rosinkranz, Elton John, Stevie Wonder, The Gap Band
• Labels: Island Records (songs album), Madison Gate Records (score album)
• Original Soundtrack Release: 30 September 2022 (digital)
• Score Album Release: 7 October 2022
• Runtime (film): 106 minutes
• Notable Placements: “Top Of The World,” “Rip Up the Recipe,” “Carried Away,” “Take A Look At Us Now (Finale),” “Crocodile Rock”
• Chart Notes: Peaked around the Top 20 on the UK Official Soundtrack Albums chart and appeared on digital downloads rankings.
• Release Context: Family musical released theatrically by Columbia/Sony in October 2022, positioned as a kid-friendly musical in the vein of “Paddington” meets “The Greatest Showman.”

Canonical Entities & Relations

Questions & Answers

Is the “Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile” soundtrack mostly original music or old hits?

Mostly original music. The core songs are new numbers written for the film by Pasek & Paul and collaborators, with a handful of classic tracks like “Crocodile Rock” and “Sir Duke” added as standout needle-drops.

Does Shawn Mendes sing everything that Lyle sings in the movie?

Yes. Whenever Lyle sings in the finished film, it is Shawn Mendes’ voice, recorded specifically for those scenes and then matched to the VFX animation.

What is the emotional centerpiece song of the soundtrack?

“Carried Away” is framed as the emotional centerpiece. It plays over the zoo sequence and condenses Lyle’s loneliness and longing for home into one big power ballad.

Are the songs important to the plot or just background fun?

The songs are structurally important. Lyle only communicates through singing, so his musical numbers replace spoken dialogue in many key scenes and push the story forward.

Is there a separate album for the instrumental score?

Yes. “Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile (Original Motion Picture Score)” collects Matthew Margeson’s orchestral cues and complements, rather than duplicates, the vocal soundtrack album.

Sources: film credits; official soundtrack and score listings; trade interviews with Pasek & Paul, Shawn Mendes and producers; soundtrack timing databases; critical reviews from major outlets.

November, 14th 2025