diff --git a/django/utils/version.py b/django/utils/version.py
index 3d66b9ef52..2271d415db 100644
--- a/django/utils/version.py
+++ b/django/utils/version.py
@@ -40,10 +40,10 @@ def get_git_changeset():
     so it's sufficient for generating the development version numbers.
     """
     repo_dir = os.path.dirname(os.path.dirname(os.path.abspath(__file__)))
-    git_show = subprocess.Popen('git show --pretty=format:%ct --quiet HEAD',
+    git_log = subprocess.Popen('git log --pretty=format:%ct --quiet -1 HEAD',
             stdout=subprocess.PIPE, stderr=subprocess.PIPE,
             shell=True, cwd=repo_dir, universal_newlines=True)
-    timestamp = git_show.communicate()[0].partition('\n')[0]
+    timestamp = git_log.communicate()[0]
     try:
         timestamp = datetime.datetime.utcfromtimestamp(int(timestamp))
     except ValueError: