diff --git a/builtin/blame.c b/builtin/blame.c
index fd415519bc..29771b7112 100644
--- a/builtin/blame.c
+++ b/builtin/blame.c
@@ -2643,6 +2643,20 @@ void setup_scoreboard(struct blame_scoreboard *sb, const char *path, struct blam
 		*orig = o;
 }
 
+struct blame_entry *blame_entry_prepend(struct blame_entry *head,
+					long start, long end,
+					struct blame_origin *o)
+{
+	struct blame_entry *new_head = xcalloc(1, sizeof(struct blame_entry));
+	new_head->lno = start;
+	new_head->num_lines = end - start;
+	new_head->suspect = o;
+	new_head->s_lno = start;
+	new_head->next = head;
+	blame_origin_incref(o);
+	return new_head;
+}
+
 int cmd_blame(int argc, const char **argv, const char *prefix)
 {
 	struct rev_info revs;
@@ -2885,16 +2899,7 @@ int cmd_blame(int argc, const char **argv, const char *prefix)
 
 	for (range_i = ranges.nr; range_i > 0; --range_i) {
 		const struct range *r = &ranges.ranges[range_i - 1];
-		long bottom = r->start;
-		long top = r->end;
-		struct blame_entry *next = ent;
-		ent = xcalloc(1, sizeof(*ent));
-		ent->lno = bottom;
-		ent->num_lines = top - bottom;
-		ent->suspect = o;
-		ent->s_lno = bottom;
-		ent->next = next;
-		blame_origin_incref(o);
+		ent = blame_entry_prepend(ent, r->start, r->end, o);
 	}
 
 	o->suspects = ent;